Trump warns Iran to free US citizens
US president Donald Trump has warned Iran that it will face “new and serious consequences” unless all unjustly detained American citizens are released.
Mr Trump urged Tehran to return Dubai-based Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer, who in October last year were sentenced by an Iranian court to 10 years in prison for espionage, the White House said on Friday.
The US president also demanded the release of Robert Levinson, an American former law enforcement officer who disappeared more than 10 years ago in Iran.
Iran responded yesterday by demanding that the US release Iranians held there.
“The statements of the White House, as usual, are an example of interference in Iran’s internal affairs and the demands are unacceptable and rejected,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.
On Tuesday, Washington introduced new economic sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile programme and said Tehran’s “malign activities” in the Middle East undercut “positive contributions” coming from the 2015 nuclear accord.
Those measures signalled that the Trump government was seeking to put more pressure on Iran while keeping in place an agreement between Tehran and six world powers to curb its nuclear programme, in return for lifting international oil and financial sanctions.
Mr Trump’s administration were “redoubling efforts” to bring back all Americans unjustly detained abroad, the White House said.
An Iranian court sentenced Siamak Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi to 10 years in prison each on charges of spying and co-operating with the US.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard detained Siamak, 46, in October 2015 while he was visiting family in Tehran. The Revolutionary Guard then arrested his father, a former Iranian provincial governor and former Unicef official, in February last year after he arrived in Iran to seek his son’s release. Baquer is 80 years old.
Mr Levinson, a former agent for the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Administration, disappeared in Iran in 2007. The US government has a US$5 million reward for information leading to his safe return.
On Sunday, Iran’s court sentenced Xiyue Wang, a US citizen, to 10 years in jail on spying charges.
Also yesterday, Iran announced the launch of a new missile production line.
The Sayyad 3 missile can reach an altitude of 27 kilometres, travel up to 120kms and target fighter planes, drones, cruise missiles and helicopters, Iranian defence minister Hossein Dehghan said at a ceremony.