Letter from the Families of Baquer and Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz
10 May 2022
President Joseph R. Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC
Dear President Biden,
In March, we, the families of four U.S. citizens unlawfully detained in Iran, watched with mixed emotions the release of two British nationals imprisoned in Tehran for years on baseless charges of espionage. We were overjoyed that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were finally free and reunited with their families; but envious because our own loved ones remain imprisoned. We implore you, Mr. President, to fulfill a priority you, your administration, and Congress have repeatedly stated of bringing home our American hostages still held in Iran.
Siamak Namazi, the longest-serving Iranian-American hostage in Iran, has been unjustly held for over 2,400 days. His frail father Baquer, who is 85 and recently underwent major surgery, was arrested when he was lured back to Iran on the false promise of visiting Siamak in 2016. Emad Shargi was seized in Tehran over four years ago, a temporary visit to the land of his birth that has turned into a nightmare of uncertain duration. Morad Tahbaz, a British-American environmentalist held since 2018, was abandoned last month by his native Britain as part of the U.K. initiative to bring home its other two hostages. He was briefly furloughed but has since been forced to return to the notorious Evin Prison.
We know that getting our loved ones out of Iran has been an important goal for you. We are grateful for your administration’s tireless efforts. But the reality is that you have now been in office for nearly a year and a half, longer than the entire duration of the 1979 hostage U.S. embassy crisis; yet our families remain unjustly detained. More ought to be done.
Indirect negotiations on securing the release of Siamak, Baquer, Emad and Morad have been taking place in parallel to the nuclear talks that began in April 2021. Indeed, senior U.S. officials have said that without resolving the fate of the four detainees, securing an agreement to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is nearly impossible to imagine. We could not agree more.
But as the Vienna negotiations remain in limbo, linking the fate of the hostages to the JCPOA could also result in prolonged and unnecessary agony for them and us, their loved ones. While we have been patient, it is past time for your administration and Congress to show bold resolve and deliver on your stated priority of bringing this horrific chapter for our families to an end.
The release of British detainees carried out at the same time as the U.K. resolved a longstanding debt owed to Iran, show that when the contours of a compromise are clear — and in that case had been clear for some time — dithering and delays in the hope of finding a solution with only marginally improved terms serves no real purpose. Nazanin’s release should have happened six years ago when the same deal was available, but political courage was lacking.
Mr. President, you have shown us, through your courage in securing Trevor Reed’s release, that you can make this happen. We have seen the results of your direct intervention and engagement and are pleading with you to please do the same for Baquer, Siamak, Morad, and Emad.
It appears to us that your administration has two options to resolve this Iranian hostage issue. If the nuclear negotiations are a prerequisite, it cannot let the process drag on. To be sure, in today’s politicized environment, praise and scorn will come with equal measure; to let the process fall apart when the sides are reportedly so close to a resolution would come at our families’ expense and turn our detainees into collateral damage. We hope Congress supports, and does not undermine, your team’s diplomatic efforts. For our part, we respect the importance of bipartisanship and have tirelessly and consistently engaged with members to ensure bipartisan support.
If the processes can be unlinked, the U.S. and Iran should quickly work to find a compromise on a detainee deal on a humanitarian basis. Progress on one front can create constructive momentum in other diplomatic tracks.
Our world is not rooted in the technical convolutions of nuclear physics, the legal maze of sanctions litigation nor the tense and divisive intricacies of regional politics. It is rooted in the personal, measured in birthdays missed and anniversaries unaccompanied, with our families caught up in a geopolitical theatre for which none of us auditioned.
We understand that there is a political price attached to each of these options, especially in an election year. But there is no cost-free option available either. We urge you and Congress not to let the fate of our loved ones turn into a political football and work closely to find an achievable diplomatic way forward with Iran. Protecting Americans should be a bipartisan responsibility. Together, you and Congress can make it one.
Mr. President, please end this ordeal that has divided our families by circumstances and prison steel. We urge you to put the lives of our hostages first and bring them home.
Sincerely yours,
Babak Namazi (Siamak Namazi’s brother and Baquer Namazi’s son)
Tara and Teymoor Tahbaz (Morad Tahbaz’s children)
Bahareh Shargi (Emad Shargi’s wife)
Neda Shargi (Emad Shargi’s sister)