The Iran nuclear agreement is a huge step forward for international security, and certainly President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will be well received at the U.N. meetings this week.
The Iran nuclear agreement is a huge step forward for international security, and certainly President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will be well received at the U.N. meetings this week.
Of course, no one expected the nuclear deal to immediately improve relations between the United States and Iran after more than three decades of bitterness and mistrust. Even so, there was hope the agreement would lead to an expedited resolution of the case of Jason Rezaian, The Washington Post reporter who has been unjustly held at Tehran’s Evin Prison since July 2014.
The espionage charges against him are absurd and he should be released now. Freeing him and two other detained Americans would be an easy way for Iran to show some humanitarian spirit and good will as it tries to improve its international reputation.
On Aug. 10, Rezaian had what was supposed to be the fourth and last court hearing of his trial, a process that is neither fair nor transparent. According to The Washington Post, the supposed evidence to support espionage charges against him includes a visit Rezaian made to a U.S. consulate in a nearby country to apply for a visa for his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian journalist.
Seven long weeks later, there is still no verdict. “He has been permitted weekly visits from his wife and mother. But he is suffering physically and psychologically from his long imprisonment and extended isolation,” Martin Baron, The Washington Post’s executive editor, said. The journalist’s brother, Ali Rezaian, recently appealed to a U.N. human rights panel to intercede with the Iranian authorities to obtain Rezaian’s release.
Iranian officials have sent mixed messages about their intentions. On CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sept. 13, Rouhani suggested there could be an opportunity to exchange Rezaian and other American prisoners for Iranians who are being prosecuted in the United States for violating international sanctions on Iran.
This month, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, made a similar suggestion. But the deputy foreign minister, Hassan Qashqavi, was quoted by the Iranian news media as saying that the Iranian authorities were not considering such a move. There has been speculation that the Americans may be caught up in internal Iranian politics between the relative moderates who support Rouhani and the hard-liners who oppose the nuclear agreement and any gestures toward the West.
Many countries are eager to resume business with Iran, but Western companies are unlikely to invest in Iran’s atrophied economy if journalists and others can be arrested on bogus charges and thrown into a black-hole penal system. World leaders should make that point to Rouhani and Zarif during their meetings in New York and press them to free the Americans without further delay.
© 2015 The New York Times Company