An American imprisoned in Iran announced Monday that he has begun a hunger strike to draw the attention of President Joe Biden to action for his release.
Siamak Namazi said in an open letter: “All I ask, sir, is to devote a minute of your time in the next seven days to the tragedies of the American hostages in Iran.”
He added, “Only the President of the United States has the authority to bring us all home if he so chooses.”
Siamak Namazi made the appeal in a letter to Biden seven years after the day Iran released five more US citizens in a prisoner exchange that coincided with the entry into force of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“When the Obama administration left me in peril … and released the other American citizens held hostage in Iran on January 16, 2016, the US government promised my family to return me safely to home in a matter of weeks.
The businessman of Iranian origin, Siamak Namazi, was arrested in October 2015 in Iran on charges of espionage, which he continues to deny.
His father, Baquer Namazi, a former UNICEF employee, was arrested when he went to Iran in an attempt to obtain the release of his son. But he was allowed to leave the country last October for health reasons.
Siamak Namazi was released from prison for a while before he was returned to Evin prison, which was subjected to a fire during the demonstrations rocking the country.
The announcement of the hunger strike came on the anniversary of the release of five Americans in 2016, after the United States and Iran began implementing the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program that was concluded under President Barack Obama.
However, his predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement, but managed to release two American citizens from Iranian prisons in an exchange.
Last October, the US State Department confirmed that the United States was “doing its best” to secure the release of US citizens detained in Iran.
TRT Arabic – Agencies
