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Given @jzarif’s recent statements about welcoming prisoner negotiations w the US, read me and @joel_schectman from last year on how complicated and fraught this issue actually is reuters.com/investigates/s…
For instance, even while tense prisoner talks were happening between the U.S. and Iran in 2015, Iran jailed another American citizen, Siamak Namazi. @jzarif then told John Kerry that Siamak could not be included in the deal 
Former officials told us @jzarif pledged to Kerry that Siamak wld be released after the deal. But Siamak is still in jail, 3+ yrs after his fellow Americans were freed. And in time since, Iran has jailed, by my count, 7 US citizens or permanent residents (some have been released)
Those individuals are Baquer Namazi (Siamak's father), Xiyue Wang, Karan Vafadari, Afarin Niasari, Robin Shahini, Morad Tahbaz, and Michael White. Tahbaz and White were arrested during Trump's tenure
All this to say that even a high-profile swap that brought home 5 Americans failed to resolve this issue, which has been a feature of US-Iran relations since 1979. Read more here, including a detailed timeline of Iran's prisoner taking reuters.com/investigates/s…
