Secretary of State John Kerry admitted in an interview with CNN that the Obama administration is talking with Iranian officials about a prisoner swap that would gain the freedom of three Americans.
Kerry told CNN’s Elise Labott he has “raised them in all of our sessions. We’ve had a lot of conversations. We are continuing those conversations now. I am hopeful that the day will come soon — obviously sooner rather than later — but soon when all of our citizens can come home.”
The three Americans being discussed in the exchange are Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist who was the Tehran bureau chief for the Washington Post; former Marine Amir Hekmati; and Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor who is imprisoned because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
Abedini’s parents were able to visit him in prison today, as they are in Iran for the funeral of Abedini’s grandmother.
“Though I am always looking forward to visitation days as my lone connection to Saeed, it pains me to know what my in-laws have lived through with their son. They live for these 15-minute visitations each week with their son, but watching your son endure the trauma of unjust imprisonment is brutal,” Naghmeh Abedini said in a statement released by the American Center for Law and Justice. “Increasingly, my updates from Iran come with many tears. The pain of seeing your son shackled, describing the pains in his body or the beatings he endures has at times been too much for his elderly parents. Today’s update was told through uncontrollable tears. Having seen the pain of my own children, I can only imagine the pain Saeed’s parents have endured the last 3 years. At the end of each call, they ask if we are any closer to Saeed’s release. I look forward to the day I can tell them confidently that this injustice has come to an end.”
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