“Whenever I say to him, ‘Oh, I wish you were here, I wish we could do this together, like when I cook something and I wish he could taste it. , he always said, ‘Whatever happens, it will be. It’s fine…don’t worry about me’,” said Ariana Shargi.
But this time, he told Ariana he was thinking about Thanksgiving, telling her he hoped with “all his heart” that the whole family could be together in their DC home, How can you turn them into turkeys? “He doesn’t really say things like that, like, wanting something,” Ariana said of her father, who has been detained by Iran since 2018. But this time, “I think I heard the voice. he’s, like, his voice – crumbling.”
The Biden administration has been adamant that the Emad Shargi case, along with those of others held by Tehran, be kept separate from negotiations aimed at bringing both the US and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. That treaty gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
As talks resume after a six-month pause with a new group of Iran appointed by the country’s newly elected conservative government, US officials continue to insist that the US hostages and talks Nuclear judgments must be kept separate.
“It remains the case for a very simple reason,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “We went to Vienna to check the proposal whether we could achieve a return together in JCPOA compliance. The fact is that we would like to see this happen, but we are not sure if whether it is possible or not, suggests to us very strongly that the fate of these detained Americans should not be tied to an uncertain proposition.”
“Even as we continue to look at it – keep testing to see if we can influence the two sides’ return to compliance, we are working relentlessly to see if these Americans can reunited with their families, in some cases after years of separation, “Extra price.
Margaux Ewen, executive director of the James Foley Foundation, told CNN.
The number of cases not known to the public is believed to be much higher, she added.
Groups like hers and her hostage advocates fear that as the nuclear talks have slowed after six rounds of talks and may now run aground once again, disappointing Iran, the very real stories about Humans of American hostages like Emad Shargi may be missing.
As the Vienna talks do not appear to be making immediate progress, these advocates argue that the Biden administration should give a higher priority than taking hostages.
“First of all, they need to put people first in the discussion,” said Sarah Levinson Moriarty, whose father Robert went missing in Iran in 2007 and is presumed dead in Iranian custody.
“We have seen many times that our Americans will not go home unless they start any negotiations,” she said. “That needs to be a pre-condition for any deal, and I believe this administration has a hard time doing that, but it’s something they need to do if they’re really interested in getting Americans in. our own back home – and there are long-suffering Americans in Iran that need to be brought home.”
Moriarty told CNN that her family hopes that American officials will also seek the return of her father’s remains.
“We understand and we have accepted that he has passed away, but we cannot close the door until the Iranians give us something,” she said.
“My family, we have not held a funeral or memorial service for my father,” she added. “He is of Jewish heritage. We can’t sit shiva for him as is tradition. We have nothing.”
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The Shargi women – his daughters Ariana and Hannah and his wife Bahareh – worry about Emad’s well-being, but lately he’s had more access to shared phones in Evin’s notorious Evin prison. Tehran and can call “maybe days away.” in 10 minutes, Bahareh said. “I’m lucky enough to have known him for 33 years. He’s a guy that at his worst, worst moments ever, he still manages to sound good and right now he is. really, he tries to sound good to us.”
Shargis has weekly calls with administration officials working on hostage affairs, including Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and his team. There are also occasional calls with US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. Bahareh said the meetings were “very supportive” and described the conversations as “broad”.
“They often want to hear about how I’m doing, how often he calls, how he’s feeling, what we’re doing, if there’s anything they can do for us,” she said.
“Obviously they couldn’t share a lot with us,” said Ariana. “It’s good to have support, but obviously, until my dad comes home, it’s tough.”
Ewen, of the James Foley Foundation, said the administration “should prioritize the release of all Americans wrongly detained by the Iranian government. Ewen told CNN. “It really needs to come first in this regard. agenda.”
‘It’s a big world’
Ewen told CNN she believes the US government and any other third-party intermediaries need to be wise about how they bring detainees back and ensure accountability for detainees. America in the wrong way.
Price told reporters last week that as the nuclear talks stalled, the United States remained in regular communication on the issue of American detainees with its allies, many of whom also contributed people detained arbitrarily or wrongly by Iran. “We have no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans abroad. And of course that includes Americans who are unjustly detained, as was the case in Iran,” he said. .
Babak Namazi, whose father Baquer and brother Siamak are being held in Iran, is not particularly hopeful when talks restart in Vienna, especially since there is little US contact with Iranian officials. since hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi came to power.
“With six rounds going on in a row, and each time there is an improvement, we are told that the hostages have also improved,” he said. “I was hoping for more in the previous rounds. Now, I don’t know what to expect.”
Bahareh just wants the Iranian government to approach her husband’s case in a humane way. “Look at him as a person and nothing else, someone with a wife, someone with children, someone with two elderly parents looking out the door waiting for his return,” she said.
“I realize it’s a big world. There are big negotiations going on. But in the end, all I care about is my little family of Emad and two girls. We split. left for four years, for no reason at all. Emad is an innocent American man and we just want him back home.”
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