CNN –
In the final hours, as the United States moved closer to a controversial but historic deal to repatriate five Americans wrongly detained in Iran, Iranian officials set up roadblocks, tried to force the U.S. government into last-minute concessions and stalled even the trial protocol before the prisoners were supposed to board a flight from Tehran.
CNN has learned new, behind-the-scenes details about the final days and the obstacles American diplomats had to overcome to ensure a diplomatic breakthrough they had been working on for years did not fail in the crucial final stages. Senior State Department officials spoke to CNN about the incident on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive details.
According to the officials, acting U.S. special envoy to Iran Abram Paley and special presidential envoy for hostage issues Roger Carstens arrived in Doha on Saturday afternoon to meet with Qatari and Swiss officials on the logistics of releasing the five American detainees and two of their family members to vote, which they said would take place on Monday.
Diplomatic relations with Iran are incredibly strained, and although years of arduous indirect negotiations had seemingly brought the process to a conclusion, the Americans had to contend with last-minute efforts to get even more out of the US sides agreeing to a deal .
The Iranians even threatened not to include all five Americans in the release unless the US did more, the officials told CNN.
But having come this far, the Americans made it clear that they would not go home without all five – that was non-negotiable for the US, and the Iranians relented.
“We held our line and the Iranians backed down and we made it work,” a senior State Department official said.
The U.S. officials indicated that negotiators did not view these Iranian attempts as a significant threat that could derail the deal, but rather as part of a typical Tehran strategy.
“They are always trying to throw sand in the works, always negotiating and always getting more,” said the official. “We took a very firm line and a very principled position, so we stood firm.”
Still, “every hour there was something new that the Iranians were trying to stall or just be difficult for the sake of being difficult,” they added.
The Americans were confident that the deal itself was tempting enough that Iran wouldn’t actually give up, and that it was strong enough that they couldn’t give up on it and still get what they wanted. Under the agreement, $6 billion in Iranian funds would be transferred from blocked accounts in South Korea to blocked accounts in Qatar to be used for humanitarian purchases, and the US would release five Iranians from US custody.
The last Iranian funds reached bank accounts in Qatar on Monday, and the U.S. had coordinated with Qatari officials to notify Iran of the receipt of the funds, which would then initiate a series of steps toward release.
But there was a delay because Iranian officials “couldn’t find the head of the central bank to sign a letter that they had to forward during their interagency work to then give people permission to leave the hotel and go to the hotel.” Airport “pave the way for everything,” the senior State Department official told CNN.
But the money arrived and everything seemed settled. But nothing in the process was easy, and even in the hours before the released Americans were set to board a Qatari plane from Iran to Doha, Iranian officials were still trying to cause delays, the officials told CNN.
The Iranians tried to insist that everyone, the released prisoners and diplomats from all sides, have lunch at the airport in Tehran before departure. But Qatari officials, in a smooth diplomatic maneuver, responded that they would be insulted if everyone on board the Qatari plane did not eat, thus avoiding an agonizing final delay.
After overcoming a series of subsequent hurdles, the Qatari plane carrying Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Shargi and two other released prisoners whose names are not publicly known, as well as Namazi’s mother Effie and Tahbaz’s wife Vida, took off from Tehran shortly before 9 ET on Monday.
Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. citizens Siamak Namazi (R), Emad Sharqi (L) and Morad Tahbaz (C) disembark from a Qatari jet upon their arrival at Doha International Airport in Doha, September 18, 2023.
When they landed in Doha, the Americans were greeted by Carstens and Paley, who gave them their own cell phones to call their family members, whose numbers were already on the phones.
They also received a call from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke to each of them for more than 10 minutes, according to officials. Blinken said Monday it was “an emotional conversation.”
The State Department alerted family members late last week that they should consider traveling to the Washington, D.C. area, without revealing too many details or raising too high hopes. They were in very regular contact with the families after that, and President Joe Biden called them on Monday morning after their relatives were released.
The department finalized its plans to bring the returned Americans to Fort Belvoir, Virginia, about 10 days before the release, another U.S. official told CNN, and included employees of the Defense Department’s Post Isolation Support Activities (PISA) program flown in to help prepare for it. All returning Americans agreed to participate in the program.
On Monday afternoon, shortly after 1 p.m. ET, the U.S. plane carrying the seven Americans, Carstens, Paley and other U.S. officials, left Doha en route to the United States. In an interview with “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday, Carstens said the flight home was “very emotional” because it was the first time Americans could interact with each other without being monitored by Iranian authorities.
And early Tuesday morning, the plane landed at Fort Belvoir. The Americans stepped off the plane, onto U.S. soil and into the arms of their loved ones carrying small U.S. flags they had brought with them.
“We are home,” Shargi said after hugging his daughters. “I can’t believe it.”