The Americans who have been detained for months in Iran until they were freed in a prisoner exchange are slowly making their way back to U.S. soil.
Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini all departed Tehran on Sunday morning on a Swiss plane and, after a brief stopover in Geneva, landed at Ramstein Air Base in western Germany where they met with their families and underwent long-overdue medical checkups.
New photo shows newly freed @washingtonpost journalist #JasonRezaian & his family - @WashPostPR, @PostBaron pic.twitter.com/oSRl4ybB5J— Mashable News (@MashableNews) January 18, 2016
A fourth man freed in the swap, Matthew Trevithick, a 30-year-old researcher who was detained for 40 days after arriving in Iran to study Farsi, was released and flew home to Boston. “It’s been quite a strain,” his father, Paul Trevithick, told the Boston Globe upon his release.
“It’s been quite a strain,” said the father of the Hingham man who was detained by Iran https://t.co/pMq5qvpNiH pic.twitter.com/3UuhKTOfcn— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) January 18, 2016
A fifth man, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, chose to stay in Iran. All were detained in Iran under what U.S. officials have said were trumped-up or never-known charges. They were freed in exchange for the pardoning of seven Iranian-Americans held in the U.S. who had violated sanctions.
The U.S. got its first look at Rezaian in years Sunday night when Brett McGurk, a U.S. State Department official, tweeted a photo of the journalist as he arrived on the tarmac in Geneva.
Thrilled to see #JasonRezaian land safely in #Geneva tonight after 18 months of unjust imprisonment in #Iran. pic.twitter.com/j0qY6rc5yo— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) January 17, 2016
The freed men were then seen before boarding a bus.
In a memo to the paper's staff, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said the journalist "was in good spirits" and "wanted to express his deep appreciation for the strong and unwavering support from everyone at The Post."
"Asked how he was doing," the editors wrote, "he said, 'I’m a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago.' He said that he feels better than he did several months ago and that his mind is sharp." They said he had caught up on news using an iPad on the flight and was surprised at all the attention his arrest and subsequent release had gotten.
Isolation, as you might expect, was the most difficult thing. When told, well, you’re a social person, he laughed and responded, “Yes, I am!”
He said he’d learned that his Christmas greetings conveyed via his mother had “made the rounds and reached everybody, which is what I intended.’’
He found escape in the fiction he was allowed to read, and today he was avidly reading whatever he wanted. He had read the story on our interview today with CNN, remarking on how strange it was to see himself being talked about so much. We told him we’ve been talking about him for 545 days.
Jason said he’d been able to read some of the coverage of his release on his mom’s iPad while on the plane to Germany. The support of the Post “means everything,” he said.
Jason Rezaian's brother Ali said in an interview on CNN Monday morning that the release followed months of tense back-and-forth negotiations with the Iranians.
"The Iranians, as they have done all along, continued to manipulate them, continued to try to mess with them, and prevented [Rezaian's wife] from leaving for some period of time," Ali Rezaian told CNN. "But thanks to the Swiss and thanks to the Americans, she came home with him."
He said the first thing his brother had asked for upon being freed by the Iranians was "information."
"I think the first thing he asked for was some information," Ali Rezaian told the network. "He feels like he's been starved of information for the last 18 months; having to live off of Iranian state TV and getting your news from there isn't where you want to be as a reporter."
Naghmeh Abedini, wife of the freed pastor Saeed Abedini, thanked people for their prayers in a series of tweets confirming his release and said she had spoken with President Obama and thanked him for his efforts.
Praise God! Saeed finally made it out of Iranian soil and Is now on a plane heading to Switzerland! Thank you for your prayers!— Naghmeh Abedini (@NaghmehAbedini) January 17, 2016
Later on Monday, posed for a selfie with Michigan congressman Rep. Dan Kildee.
Hugging Amir Hekmati for the first time! #FreedAmir pic.twitter.com/h0XXzweWji— Rep. Dan Kildee (@RepDanKildee) January 18, 2016
President Obama hailed the exchange as a product of diplomacy in an address made Sunday morning from the White House's Cabinet Room. "This is a good day, because, once again, we’re seeing what’s possible with strong American diplomacy," said the president.
"As I said in my State of the Union address, ensuring the security of the United States and the safety of our people demands a smart, patient and disciplined approach to the world. That includes our diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said, adding that he decided "a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government."
Secretary John Kerry, who had been leading American efforts in the Iran nuclear negotiations and helped secure the release of the Americans as a byproduct of the deal -- though the two weren't said to be directly tied -- said on Twitter, "For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in Iran at every opportunity."