DOHA, Qatar -- Five Americans detained for years in Iran walked off a plane and into freedom Monday, most arm-in-arm, as part of a politically risky deal that saw President Joe Biden agree to the release of nearly $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets owed by a third country, South Korea.
The successful negotiations for the Americans' freedom brought Biden profuse thanks from their families but heat from Republican presidential rivals and other opponents for the monetary arrangement with one of America's top adversaries.
"Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home," Biden said in a statement released as the plane carrying the group from Tehran landed in Doha, Qatar. A plane carrying the Americans home to the United States was due to land Monday night.
Iran's hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, on hand for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, suggested Monday's exchange could be "a step in the direction of a humanitarian action between us and America."
"It can definitely help in building trust," Raisi told journalists.
However, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in disputes over Tehran's nuclear program and other matters. Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
The prisoner release unfolded amid a major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, with the possibility of U.S. troops boarding and guarding commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all oil shipments pass.
After the plane slowed to a stop in Doha, three of the prisoners walked down the stairs. They hugged the U.S. ambassador to Qatar, Timmy Davis, and others.
The three -- Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz -- then threw their arms over one another's shoulders and walked off to a building in the airport.
In a statement issued on his behalf, Namazi said: "I would not be free today, if it wasn't for all of you who didn't allow the world to forget me."
"Thank you for being my voice when I could not speak for myself and for making sure I was heard when I mustered the strength to scream from behind the impenetrable walls of Evin Prison," he said.
Namazi said in the statement that he had been dreaming of freedom for almost eight years as he experienced "torment" for 2,898 days in prison.
"My heartfelt gratitude goes to President Biden and his administration, which had to make some incredibly difficult decisions to rescue us," he said.
The United States did not immediately identify the other two freed Americans, all of whom were released in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for the deal over the frozen Iranian assets. The Biden administration said the five freed Iranians pose no threat to U.S. national security.
Two of the imprisoned Americans' family members -- Namazi's mother, Effie Namazi, and Tahbaz's wife, Vida -- who had been under travel bans in Iran also were on the plane. The women, too, clasped arms and kissed on the tarmac in Qatar.
The Americans were given a brief medical checkup in Doha before they boarded a U.S. government plane headed for Washington, officials said.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the U.S. Meanwhile, Nour News, a website believed to be close to Iran's security apparatus, said two of the Iranian prisoners were in Doha for the swap.
Nour News identified the two released Iranians in Doha as Mehrdad Ansari, an Iranian sentenced by the U.S. to 63 months in prison in 2021 for obtaining equipment that could be used in missiles, electronic warfare, nuclear weapons and other military gear, and Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, an Iranian charged in 2021 over allegedly unlawfully exporting laboratory equipment to Iran.
The other Iranians involved in the swap were identified as Kaveh Afrasiabi, 65, who was charged with being an unregistered lobbyist; Kambiz Attar Kashani, 45, a dual Iranian American businessperson who pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally export technologies; and Amin Hasanzadeh, who was charged with stealing sensitive technical plans.
The $5.9 billion in cash released to Iran represents money South Korea owed Iran -- but had not yet paid -- for oil purchased before the U.S. imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
"This action was taken strictly to address a humanitarian need," Raisi told journalists in New York on Monday. He added, "These were funds that belonged to the people of Iran."
The U.S. maintains that, once in Qatar, the money will be held in restricted accounts to be used only for humanitarian goods, such as medicine and food. Those transactions are currently allowed under American sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic over its advancing nuclear program.
Iranian government officials have largely concurred, though some hardliners have insisted, without evidence, that there would be no restrictions on how Tehran spends the money.
The planned exchange comes ahead of the convening of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this week in New York, where Raisi will speak.
POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS
The deal has already opened Biden to fresh criticism from Republicans and others who say the administration is helping boost the Iranian economy at a time when Iran poses a growing threat to American troops and Mideast allies. That could have implications in his re-election campaign.
Former President Donald Trump, currently the lead Republican challenger in the polls against Biden's 2024 re-election bid, called it an "absolutely ridiculous" deal on the Truth Social social media site. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Biden of "rewarding and incentivizing Tehran's bad behavior."
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, sent a letter Monday to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken requesting information about the Biden administration's payment to Iran and the release of five Iranian agents.
Cotton's letter noted that at least two of the Iranian agents reportedly plan to stay in the United States and urged Blinken to reverse the deal.
"According to public news reports, your deal will also allow at least two of those Iranian agents to remain in the United States," the letter states. "One of them, Kaveh Afrasiabi, had been arrested for his work as an unregistered Iranian government operative and lobbied American officials on issues as sensitive as nuclear policy. It seems clear where his loyalties lie.
"You should reverse your September 11 deal, which encourages Iran to take more hostages and gifts the regime billions of dollars. If the deal isn't reversed, you should at a minimum remove all Iranian agents from American soil."
Cotton's letter went on to request that the secretary of state's office provide full details of the Biden administration's agreement with Iran relating to prisoners, including side deals or related agreements; whether the Iranian agents reportedly planning to remain in the United States can be deported under U.S. immigration laws; and what plan the Biden administration has in place to monitor the activities and communications of the Iranian agents the U.S. has agreed to release.
Cotton had also written on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that "Joe Biden's embarrassing appeasement not only makes Iran stronger, it makes America less safe."
Mick Mulroy, a senior Pentagon official in the Trump administration, said Monday that the release of the funds would "likely give countries that incarcerate Americans as political hostages more reasons to do so."
Blinken warned Americans on Monday against traveling to Iran and other countries where the risk of being wrongly detained was high.
"While this group of U.S. citizens has been released, there is no way to guarantee a similar result for other Americans who decide to travel to Iran despite the U.S. government's long-standing warning against doing so," he said.
Biden held what the White House described as an emotional phone call with the families of the freed Americans after their release.
In his statement, Biden also urged Americans not to travel to Iran and demanded more information on what happened to Bob Levinson, an American who went missing years ago. The Biden administration also announced fresh sanctions on former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.
The U.S. government, the prisoners' families and activists have denounced the charges against the five Americans as baseless.
The Americans included Namazi, who was detained in 2015 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges; Emad Sharghi, a venture capitalist sentenced to 10 years; and Morad Tahbaz, a British-American conservationist of Iranian descent who was arrested in 2018 and also received a 10-year sentence.
In a statement, Sharghi's sister, Neda, said she "can't wait to hug my brother and never let him go."
"This is my brother, not an abstract policy," she added. "We are talking about human lives. There is nothing partisan about saving the lives of innocent Americans, and today should be a moment of American unity as we welcome them home."
Blinken thanked Qatar, Switzerland, South Korea and Oman for helping make the deal happen. Biden pledged in a statement to keep pressing for "accountability for Iran and other regimes for the cruel practice of wrongful detention."
Iran and the U.S. have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution. Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions.
The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners -- including those with dual nationality -- as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.
Negotiations over a major prisoner swap faltered after then-president Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the nuclear deal in 2018. From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions.
Iran also supplies Russia with the bomb-carrying drones Moscow uses to target sites in Ukraine in its war on Kyiv, which remains another major dispute between Tehran and Washington.
Information for this article was contributed by Jon Gambrell, Lujain Jo, Matthew Lee, Nasser Karimi, Amir Vahdat, Paul Daven, Ellen Knickmeyer, Eric Tucker, Farnoush Amiri, Aamer Madhani and Michelle Phillips of The Associated Press, Michael D. Shear and Farnaz Fassihi of The New York Times and staff writers of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
From left, Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, former prisoners in Iran, walk out of a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed Monday and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
FILE - In this photo released on Aug. 11, 2022, by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani speaks in Tehran, Iran. Some $6 billion of Iranian assets once frozen in South Korea is in Qatar, a key element for a planned prisoner swap between Tehran and the United States, an Iranian official said Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP, File)
In this photo released by Nour News on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, Iranians Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, right, and Mehrdad Moein Ansari pose at Doha airport in Qatar after being released from prison in the United States in a prisoner swap with Iran. Officials said five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a trade with Iran flew out of Tehran on Monday, part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (Nour News via AP)
Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, former prisoners in Iran, walk out of a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed Monday and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Two men walk past a state-organized, anti-U.S. mural painted on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman walks past an anti-U.S. mural painted on the wall of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
From left, Morad Tahbaz, Siamak Namazi, and Emad Sharghi walk away arm in arm from a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed Monday and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
From left, Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz walk away from a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed Monday and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)