Iran and U.S. Discuss Issue of Americans Imprisoned by Tehran
Babak Namazi also said he was counting on Mr. Trump to "take personal responsibility for the lives of my father
and brother." In a Twitter message in October, when the Namazis were both sentenced, Mr. Trump vowed, "This doesn’t happen if I’m president!" Mr. Trump has also denounced the Iranian nuclear accord as "the worst deal ever" and has hinted that he would seek to renegotiate or scrap it.
Bahram Ghasemi, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Tehran, confirmed on Monday
that there had been a discussion, and he said such talks in previous years had yielded "positive results." Mr. Ghasemi’s remarks, at a regular weekly news conference reported by Iranian media, did not suggest a negotiation was underway for the release of the Americans, all of them dual citizens of the United States and Iran.
By RICK GLADSTONEMAY 1, 2017
Iran said Monday that it had discussed the issue of Americans with dual citizenship
held in Iranian prisons during a meeting last week with the United States.
The discussion, during a meeting in Vienna on compliance with the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord, was the first face-to-face exchange between emissaries from Iran
and the United States since President Trump took office.
The most prominent dual nationals currently imprisoned are Siamak Namazi, a businessman who had advocated improved relations with the United States,
and his father, Baquer Namazi, a former United Nations Children’s Fund official.
When the nuclear agreement was put into effect in January 2016, Iran released a number of dual nationals from the United States
that it had arrested on spying and other charges, including Jason Rezaian, who was The Washington Post’s Tehran bureau chief.