5 Americans freed in swap with Iran, arrive in Qatar

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Months ago, Iran had anticipated getting as much as $7 billion.
55% : Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
50% : "Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the U.S. side.
45% : Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed today and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen.
45% : Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed today and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen.
42% : "Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home," President Joe Biden said in a statement released as the plane carrying the group from Tehran landed in Doha, Qatar.
42% : The two that Nour News said were in Doha were: Mehrdad Ansari, an Iranian sentenced to 63 months in prison in 2021 for obtaining equipment that could be used in missiles, electronic warfare, nuclear weapons and other military gear, and Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, an Iranian charged in 2021 over allegedly unlawfully exporting laboratory equipment to Iran.
42% : Iranian government officials have largely concurred with that explanation, though some hard-liners have insisted, without providing evidence, that there would be no restrictions on how Tehran spends the money.
42% : Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions.
40% : The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran -- but had not yet paid -- for oil purchased before the U.S. imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
40% : While the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran now has enough enriched uranium to produce "several" bombs, months more would likely be needed to build a weapon and potentially miniaturize it to put it on a missile -- if Iran decided to pursue one.
39% : But the advances in its program have led to fears of a wider regional conflagration as Israel, itself a nuclear power, has said it would not allow Tehran to develop the bomb.
36% : "U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the Qataris, Swiss, South Koreans and Omanis for helping in the exchange, and pledged in a statement to keep pressing for "accountability for Iran and other regimes for the cruel practice of wrongful detention.
36% : From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions.
35% : Iran and the U.S. have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution.
34% : In addition to the five freed Americans, two U.S. family members flew out of Tehran, according to a senior Biden administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity when the exchange was ongoing.
33% : Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran's nuclear program.
29% : In his statement, Biden urged Americans not to travel to Iran, and he demanded more information on what happened to Bob Levinson, an American who went missing years ago.
29% : Iran has taken steps in recent months to settle some issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
27% : From left, Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, former prisoners in Iran, walk out of a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, today.
26% : The deal has already opened Biden to fresh criticism from Republicans and others who say the administration is helping boost the Iranian economy at a time when Iran poses a growing threat to American troops and Mideast allies.
24% : Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. intelligence community has kept its assessment that Iran is not pursuing an atomic bomb.
21% : "The five prisoners Iran has said it seeks are mostly held over allegedly trying to export banned material to Iran, such as dual use electronics that can be used by a military.
19% : Iran also supplies Russia with the bomb-carrying drones Moscow uses to target sites in Ukraine in its war on Kyiv, which remains another major dispute between Tehran and Washington.
14% : The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners -- including those with dual nationality -- as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.

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