Posted on 12/08/2019 8:48:06 PM PST by ransomnote
After more than three years of being held prisoner in Iran, Xiyue Wang is returning to the United States. A Princeton University graduate student, Mr. Wang had been held under the pretense of espionage since August 2016. We thank our Swiss partners for their assistance in negotiating Mr. Wangs release with Iran. The highest priority of the United States is the safety and well-being of its citizens. Freeing Americans held captive is of vital importance to my Administration, and we will continue to work hard to bring home all our citizens wrongfully held captive overseas.
Switzerland facilitated the swap. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Soleimani in Zurich, state news agency IRNA said. Soleimani, who then flew to Iran, was accompanied to Switzerland by Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, according to a U.S. official.
Soleimani sounds like he hates the US for existing.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-are-americans-currently-detained-iran-659182
OK.. So you are saying this guy is one of the potential demoncrat nominees for running in the 2020 election? The list was so long and since I've not read the list lately, I'm sort of in the dark about this...
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that Wangs release is part of a prisoner swap, with the United States freeing Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani. In an interview in Sept. 2019, Zarif said he had offered to swap Wang and an Iranian professor over a year ago.
Soleimani had been arrested in the United States in 2016 for allegedly violating trade sanctions by attempting to transport biological material to Iran. Prior to the prisoner swap, Soleimani was facing a federal trial in Georgia, according to Bloomberg.
Soleimani claims he was transporting medicine to Iranian patients, but the US charges suggest that it may have been more than medicine. Possibly stem cell treatments or other prohibited research, to sell to Iran.
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