WaPo’s Rezaian: Iran, Russia, China Are Taking More American Hostages, They ‘Don’t See Anything’ Stopping Them

On Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian, who was wrongly detained by the Iranian government, stated that “countries like Iran, Russia, China” are taking more Americans hostage “because they don’t see anything standing in their way.” But freeing current American hostages does require cutting deals.

Rezaian said, “[I]t’s a real stark binary choice right now, either negotiating the release of fellow Americans or leaving them behind. Leaving them behind means longer detentions, imprisonments, potentially death. And I think the hard truth is, what we should be talking about is, what can we do, what will we do to deter hostage-taking in the future? Right now, we’re not doing enough. And countries like Iran, Russia, China are doing this more and more, because they don’t see anything standing in their way. But I think, to the question of whether or not we should do deals, it’s really a choice of bringing people home or leaving them behind. I’m proud and thankful to live in a country where our government cares about its citizens enough to try and bring them home.”

He added that there are “valid” concerns about the unfreezing of assets in the reported deal with Iran announced today, “But the reality of the situation is that these funds are being held in a restricted account. Restricted accounts existed in other countries, like India and Turkey. Those accounts were spent down by Iran with no oversight by the U.S. government. In this situation, in my understanding, is that Korea has said that, we don’t want to release these funds unless the United States gives us permission. If we’re going to have leverage against a country like Iran in the form of their money being held in a third country, what better way to use it than to free Americans?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett