NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE {T} he daughter of a U.S. resident sentenced to death in Iran but left out of the recent high-profile prisoner swap slammed the Biden administration’s decision to let Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi come to New York for this week’s U.N. meeting — and asserted that the deal and Raisi’s admission to the U.S. are linked.
“It adds insult to injury that we have right now. Hostages are left to die, and the hostage-takers are invited here, given a big podium to speak,” said Gazelle Sharmahd, who lives in California. Her father, Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual Iranian-German citizen and journalist with U.S. residency, was kidnapped from Dubai in 2020 and taken to Iran, where he was sentenced to death by an Iranian court for charges that involved his criticism of the regime.
He was not part of this week’s prisoner swap, which involved the release of five U.S. hostages by Iran in exchange for the release of five Iranian nationals accused of various crimes. Earlier today, a plane carrying the released American hostages landed in Washington.
The U.S. says a treaty requires it to allow all heads of state to attend U.N. meetings, even though Raisi is subject to sanctions over his role in the mass executions of political prisoners.
But Gazelle Sharmahd, who also celebrated the release of the five Americans, sees the decision to grant Raisi a visa as linked to the deal.
She said “it’s not a coincidence” that the swap occurred as Raisi arrived in New York yesterday for a smattering of meetings and his speech to the U.N. General Assembly today and that this timing was probably “all part of the plan.” She made the comments yesterday at a conference in Manhattan hosted by Hostage Aid Worldwide, a nonprofit group dedicated to advancing policies to combat authoritarian regimes’ hostage-taking, in response to a question from National Review.
Raisi’s U.N. speech will come on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini, whose murder by Iran’s religious police set off months of demonstrations that were violently suppressed by the regime.
In the days leading up to his trip, news about the Iranian leader’s plans trickled out, sparking controversy. He was supposed to appear for an event at the Council on Foreign Relations this morning, but after Iranian human-rights advocates condemned the planned speech, it was reportedly postponed by a day and moved to another location at the Iranian government’s request.
Gazelle Sharmahd had tough words for the administration’s characterization of the deal, which involves the waiving of sanctions that blocked Iran’s access to $6 billion in funds held by South Korean banks.
“Our administration keeps saying this is their money. We’re not giving them their money. This is the money of my dad. This is my money. This is the money of the people who are being killed in the streets right now. This is not the money of President Raisi,” she said.
Although the administration claims that Qatar will oversee the funds and ensure that they are spent exclusively for medical and humanitarian purposes, Raisi has said his regime will spend the money as it sees fit.
Sharmahd also accused top officials of refusing to meet with her, saying that it took three years to even secure a meeting with State Department officials. She still has not met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“It is horrific what is happening to give a mass murderer a stage while we hostages are told to be quiet. It is horrific to legitimize this regime that is terrorizing us and leaving my dad behind to die because we know that the regime has no more reason to keep him alive right now.”