[Music] guys our little Cur is ready I don't know if you know penes peny Seas ing are like ahmad's favorites I learned from ammad since he's the chef of the family J would anyone from Abu Dhabi be calling right now can you answer it I mean was it 44 no okay cuz 44 is Bubba sometimes with a calling card although it's an odd hour for anybody to call from the Middle East of course sometimes when I set the table I set it for the four of us because I know Amad will come home one day to [Music] dinner
five Americans are being held in prison by Tron as human bargaining chips among them Imad Shi authorities in Iran arrested a United States citizen he and his wife of 32 years decided to visit ton 15 secret police stormed their apartment at 2:30 in the morning and took Imad to Tan's notorious aan prison Iran was opening both our daughters we in University we were empty nesters and we thought you know we've lived in DC all our Lives why not go and just visit my fellow Americans today I want to up
date the world on our efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal he talked to me once and talked to Ari once for those entire eight months and it's also hard because you know the calls are being monitored I had to speak to him in fars SE my far is obviously not good I was born in America I've lived here my whole life so it's hard to express even the things you want to express to someone you love so
[Music] much [Music] while I was in Iran we were told if you keep quiet you'll have your husband back if you keep quiet you'll have your husband back and listen after 8 months he came out on bail he got a certificate from the high court saying he was cleared of all charges and he was allowed to come out on bail it was so incredible we got to FaceTime him every day he was at my grandmother's house he was listening to music and he could just be free to extent even though he couldn't come home but
we were comfortable because he was safe I hope you slept well my love uh hope you had a good evening last night your dinner last night looked wonderful I'm so happy the three of you uh can sit on the deck and have dinner together that's marvelous love you my baby thanks for all the pictures and videos it was like as I if I I was there myself last night uh and the sun has just come out so I'm going to go for a walk have a good morning toam a month and a half later we saw his picture on BBC Persi
a with handcuffs on that is how we found out he was detained [Music] again I always have a journal with me times when I don't really know what to do writing helps me release my world our world completely torn apart and Still Remains completely torn apart I look outside for Hope from time to time there are murmurs of Hope but generally there are tears rolling down my face with no explanation at all that is when I went to the state department to say my husband is an American citizen he's being hel
d against his will in Iran I want you to know this because we need help please tell me what to do now a while back we finally had the whole family come in together and we gave them a pretty fullsome brief on what we were trying to do and what the status of Ahad was at the time and during that um bahara was kind of sketching away on something and at the very end of it she presented us with it it was a napkin kind of like a napkin that we'd given her to like put underneath her water bottle and on
it she she'd written a poem I think as we all started to read it we were all kind of tearing up it's really description of a family in pain trying to meet up with the government that's responsible for bringing her loved one back it reminded us of what our duty is there's three factors that you have to balance one is getting The Human Side nothing could be more horrible we need to bring them home there's a dimension which is what do we do in order not to encourage and incentivize this kind of beh
avior and the third dimension which is there are National Security interest that we need to pursue and an Iran with a nuclear bomb would be something that would be of great danger to the region to our security since I told the state department I feel like oh okay now somebody who knows what to do will do what they're supposed to do to bring aad home hi Mr Ballinger hello hey guys hi hello we did speak with him yesterday but we also spoke with him the day before yesterday when he called from the
public phone our mom was like we're worried about you no one seen you in 5 months like some we want to see your face and then he was able to call on like FaceTime has mother that's terrific that must make you all so excited I'm concerned about this move from his old cell the new cell we'll have the US government file uh another complaint about uh about these conditions he said you know B I have been in these rooms for a total of one year now that means I've only had two days of fresh air in that
one year so yes better conditions would be really really necessary before you know he actually comes home or even a day makes a difference an hour makes a difference do we know specifically right now the hostages are being discussed as part of the vien talks or is that not confirmed as we understand it I think most of the discussions are about the uh the nuclear talks but the uh State Department Representatives have assured us Imad and other American hostages are being raised it's made clear to
the Iranians that they uh that they have to be released as part of any deal the thing we all worry about we know there's going to be a long pause one way or another with the Iranian elections we don't know you know what you Iranian policy is going to be on the other end of the elections I think most people think that negotiations would be [Applause] worse Iranians will go to the polls on the 18th of June there are seven candidates but many people believe the election is stacked in favor of one
man ibraim ricey is seen um to be sort of a Sho in uh for president you've been quoted saying the presidential election Iran is not what determines your pace of these talks we're not going to try to accelerate it and cut corners because we want to rush this for the sake of of meeting an electoral deadline there are centers of power in Washington and ton that oppose a swift return to the nuclear deal if the hardliners in tan win the ones who oppose this deal resurrecting it will be much more diff
icult that will also impact any attempt to release the hostages if you ask Americans about Iran one of the first things that comes to their mind is the 197 9 hostage crisis the US Embassy in tran has been invaded and occupied by Iranian students the Americans inside have been taken prisoner and will be held as hostages until the deposed Shaw is returned from the United States where he's receiving medical treatment for cancer they were held 444 days as the nation watched and waited if you ask an
Iranian they will talk about 1953 when the government of the United States came in and changed the Iranian government by paying off Military Officers and or crating a coup the CIA has released documents that show its role in the 1953 Coupe both side have these very long deep wounds and mistrusts that exist so getting out of the cycle is a political mindfield and politicians usually have no interest in paying the price for it oh look this morning when I saw this here and I was like oh my gosh you
know it's a sleeve I opened it and I was like oh yeah it's a good day to air out his clothes and to like be you know it was just weird I just did that I knitted this for him which is so huge I don't know how he would possibly even wear it it's so thick but because I had knitted it for him while he was in jail the first time he said he loved it [Music] it seems like there is a sense of urgency to make something happen before the elections in Iran in June and that that gives me some sort of Hope
the state department has been so supportive but they don't really give these kind of detailed indications s like how are the talks going in Vienna it's very broad the talks and and it's a little bit like we're not certain that the hostages are part of these talks or they're parallel to these and not quite alongside there are conversations about the nuclear deal and then there are separate side conversations led by the UK with Iran on our behalf and on their behalf about the release of our citize
ns we set up a Channel with our Envoy for the counter Isis campaign to talk directly to people that reached into the Iranian revolutionary guard so that we might have a better opportunity of of securing the release of these Americans there was an eruption of political attacks from the Republican party on how could you possibly presidential debate Starts Now this Iranian nuclear deal is nothing short of catastrophic the agreement was terrible it was incompetent if this thing continues we are goin
g to be the first Americans to leave our children worse off than ourselves we must simply make it very clear that the next president one of us on this stage will absolutely not honor that agreement and will be tough with Iran because otherwise we put every person in this world in a very dangerous place we were going to lose no matter what we did you know and look some of that's just politics but like it it's dangerous because at a certain point it's it is going to it is going to creep into discu
ssions and the situation room about like whether we can weather the political storm of doing what might be necessary to get an American Home go Olive you're graduating too hopefully we'll all celebrate together when Bubba comes home yes hopefully I was a sophomore when he was in prison and we weren't able to tell anyone love you okay you don't have to cry bye by bye congratulations thank you the hardest part about people not knowing was just talking to other people just like normally and feeling
I have this like huge weight on my life my relationships struggled during that time conratulations conat graduation and all those big moments like it really stinks that he wasn't able to be there thank you thank you but it's really just like the everyday small moments that are the hardest here here see good it feels sometimes like I'm watching somebody else's life I'm supposed to be this strong one and last time Ahad asked me on the phone so how are you doing and I said but I have to be doing f
ine because you are the only one that can ever pick me up or has ever picked me up when I Fallen our mom has gotten one of those phone slings cuz she constantly has to be talking to different people to members of the US government or lawyers family members so it really is attached at her hip now there's cautious optimism about the progress of talk aimed at bringing the United States back into the nuclear deal Tan's been negotiating with five powers remaining the agreement in Vienna the Biden Adm
inistration was not really in a huge hurry they didn't want to make unnecessary concessions in order to get a deal the problem that the Biden Administration is now facing is very strong political resistance in Congress towards lifting the sanctions for 2 and a half years I was we as a family have decided to talk about a Mod's case because well guess what this didn't work in an interview you'll see only on CBS This Morning the businessman's family at their home in Washington our family has been t
orn apart my husband has been taken it was as if they didn't know who I'm talking about until they finally told me your husband is here and will be here for a long time his two daughters described how hard it has been not having their father home with them in the US our dad is really just the most incredible father in the world he's extremely present he's the one who keeps our family together he's the foundation of our family do you have any idea why the Iranian authorities would take your fathe
r it's because he's an American citizen to be used his Leverage I'm writing a letter from my sister and I to President Biden explaining our situation our dad's situation it's a lot of 33 years AG go 33 years I know the rep the repetition the repetition is trying to be like oh oh I see it's it's intentional dear Joseph it's like years ago these two young ladies at this age who should be worried about going out partying having fun and then here they pouring their being into this letter into every
meeting we have with the lawyers with the state department they say they want to do anything they can to help and they are doing every single thing they can in their power to help their father this morning there are reports that the Iranian government has agreed with the West to release some Hanes what can you tell us about that John I can tell you unfortunately that report is untrue there is no agreement to release these four Americans we're working very hard to get them released we raised this
with Iran and our interlocutors all the time uh but so far there's no agreement to bring these four Americans home again we're working hard to bring these Americans home uh when we get that done we'll obviously be delighted to announce that news let's talk about the president's number one priority vaccinations I think we were hoping by going to the state department by going to the media that I wouldn't be here now you know I'd be on a walk with a because it's a pretty [Laughter] day it feels wo
nderful to be able to hear his voice I want to hang on to the closeness that I feel when I speak to him and then we hang up and then we never know when is the next time we're going to get to hear his voice again bye bye bye [Music] shocking footage filmed on Iran's election day shows Iranian expats being attacked outside polling stations up and down the UK [Music] up I'm not many of these moderate candidates were disqualified and this is not a free and fair election so the Hardline candidate wil
l easily win there go get out I'm not going to you can't look at this P the hardliners win as is expected to happen it's going to be much harder for us to reach a diplomatic deal resolving issues including the freedom of American Iranians who are in jail in Iran and their families are Here Wanting obviously their immediate release No election no Freedom no human rights a Hardline cleric SW to victory in Iran's presidential election rice is a harsh critic of the West he's been sanctioned for alle
ged human rights abuses including overseeing the executions of thousands of political prisoners [Music] we haven't heard from a mod for 12 days because of the elections the internet phone company that he used to call from wases down and then we hear from the other hostage families that they speak to their loved ones daily so you just kind of start thinking a bunch of stuff we've not had a round of negotiations with Iran since very shortly after the election we don't want to leave any of the unju
stly detained Americans behind and that is independent of our nuclear [Music] negotiations Americans are illegally detained we haven't been able to have a phone call or a letter from him in 151 days 472 days this fall has been nearly 3 years all Administration needs to do more to bring them back home no americ Left Behind no americ Left Behind Amer Left Behind Amer behind America behind [Music] America hello good morning hi nice to see you ni to see you obviously I'm interested to hear the lates
t I believe when we were speaking to you last we did not even know where he was he's a very positive person um and he doesn't complain ever his voice has started to get a little bit like wavery recently and I think he really hoped he would be home for Christmas and you could kind of sense that when that day came and went it kind of crushed him well I'm glad I'm glad you're able to speak with him I had a question for you what kind of roadblocks have you been facing in your advocacy work in kind o
f getting other members of of Congress to kind of pay attention to this and the public there's not a member of Congress who doesn't believe that we should be focused on on bringing home every American who is being held hostage as wrongfully detained it's more an issue of making sure that this is a priority for my colleagues we can remind people that now it's the law of of our country that this is a priority for the administration that there is a whole of government approach that the house senate
and executive branch are all going to be focused on working with families and then negotiating with other countries who are holding Americans to make sure that they all come home I would love to let you know that really we've had great uh support great contact but as we can see we are here with you now and so it means emad is not back home I appreciate you're saying that I think it's really important ultimately are there limits on what we can do sure like there's there's not we're not going to
release all lift all sanctions on Iran for them to return hostages that that's not realistic are there lots and lots of creative things that that we could do and ways that we can approach this and we ought to be thinking about all of it new negotiations began in VI today Iran's president said the lifting of sanctions is non-negotiable US officials are now saying that Iran's nuclear capabilities are too advanced to even restore a key goal in the original deal at this point we seriously have to as
k what exactly are we trying to salvage Iran Hawks and DC are capitalizing on this moment pushing the hopes for any deal further into Oblivion by arguing what's the point of even having one the release of the Americans and Third Country Nationals uh who are being unjustly detained in Iran uh is a top priority uh for the United [Music] States based on my reporting there was a push for the B Administration to immediately rejoin the deal on day one and lift sanctions and in turn give Iran limited t
ime to come back and compliance and every signal that we got from tan was that they were very happy and ready to do that in instead of now being drawn out in this complicated negotiations that may fall apart with a team that is less willing to compromise and remember much of the advances of the nuclear program had not even happened in the first months of Biden Administration oftentimes London says can you get your technical person to do this and that I just have to reminding that there's one tec
hnical person here and that's me nobody else is here [Music] okay okay one question short and sweet I think it's a feature of a totalitarian regime to put pressure on people's family members and take people Hostage to achieve their policy goals and I can tell this from my own personal experience where my family was harassed this happened three four years ago sort of on a regular basis but then had stopped for one full year they actually back then they barred my parents from leaving the country t
hey took their passports away it forms my reporting of situations especially as it relates to hostages it reminds me that most people do not have a real window of what they're going [Music] through M and I watched a good movie last night it was um Paul rud like you know the one that plays phoe's boyfriend in friends and then I always make the the tacos with um with turkey meat went for a walk with olive [Music] mercy bye hear the phone hanging up at the end which is always weird the practice of
holding holding people hostage for some gain is as old as mankind itself and as widespread as is the existence of undemocratic governments you know we have to come up with something that's going to make them want to release those hostages and that's never an easy task for any [Music] negotiator a room full of people but in fact filled with love the focus one human a hostage I take a deep breath and I see a bridge from there to hear home when word about how I feel is grateful that is the first th
ing that comes to to my mind but then frustrated well because my husband is not here since that moment I made an appointment to go to the state department nothing has [Music] changed [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
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