Closing summary
Five detained Americans and two of their family members have been allowed to leave Iran and are on their way back to the United States after the Biden administration reached a deal in which Washington freed five jailed Iranians and allowed Tehran to access $6b in oil revenue, but only for humanitarian purposes. The agreement comes as the United Nations general assembly kicks off in New York, but it’s too soon to say if the deal between the two archenemy nations will lead to further negotiations down the road.
Here’s what else happened today:
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi described the release of the Americans as “purely a humanitarian action”.
Joe Biden held what the White House described as “an emotional call” with the freed Americans as they traveled back to the United States.
Michael McCaul, the Republican leader of the House foreign affairs committee, worried the deal would incentivize “future hostage-taking” and “free up funds for Iran’s malign activities.”
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, credited “all of you who didn’t allow the world to forget me” for his release.
Hunter Biden sued the IRS, arguing that the tax authority broke the law by failing to protect his privacy when two agents went public with claims of political meddling in their investigation.
You can read our latest full report here:
Our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour has written about how this deal may signal new direction in western diplomacy:
Updated
In a statement, Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, welcomed the release of the five Americans from Iranian custody, but criticized the Biden administration for allowing Tehran to access $6b in oil revenue:
I am immensely relieved that five Americans held hostage by Iran are finally reunited with their families and on their way home. I wish them peace, strength, and health as they rebuild their lives in freedom.
I am very concerned that this $6 billion hostage deal incentivizes future hostage-taking. Even though the Administration claims these funds are limited to humanitarian transactions, we all know that transactions are difficult to monitor and that money is fungible. There is no question this deal will free up funds for Iran’s malign activities.
Republicans have generally called for harsh measures against Tehran, and during his presidency, Donald Trump went as far as to authorize a drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani in 2020. Democrats, meanwhile, have tried to find common ground where they can with Iran, such as the 2015 deal Barack Obama reached to curb its nuclear weapons program – which Trump announced the US would withdraw from in 2018.
In domestic political news, NBC News reports that the far-right Republican troublemaker Matt Gaetz is highly likely – in the estimation of one source, “100% in” – to run for governor in Florida in 2026.
By then, the current hard-right Republican governor, the presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, will either be in the White House or at the end of his two-term time in state office.
On Monday, NBC quoted one “longtime Florida Republican lobbyist” as saying that at a reception in Tallahassee on Sunday, “there was a lot of talk about it … and Gaetz was telling people to basically expect him to be in”.
Another “Florida Republican operative” was quoted as saying: “He’s 100% in. I think Gaetz is an instant frontrunner and from what I hear he’s already won the Trump primary”, meaning Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Gaetz, 41, told NBC: “Many did encourage me to consider running for governor one day.”
He also aimed a dig at DeSantis, saying: “But we have an outstanding governor who will be in that position through 2026.”
Gaetz’s “only political focus right now”, he added – other than opposing almost everything Kevin McCarthy does as US House speaker, including proposing ways to fund the federal government – “is Trump 2024”.
Some further reading:
The Iranian nationals who were released in a prisoner swap with the United States have landed in Tehran, state-run PressTV reports:
🔴 Iranians freed by US land in Tehran. pic.twitter.com/VU0sotS7GU
— PTVBreaking (@PTVBreaking1) September 18, 2023
Reuters reports that the two individuals arriving in Iran after transiting Qatar are Mehrdad Moin-Ansari and Reza Sarhangpour-Kafrani. Another two Iranians released by the United States will stay in the country, while a fifth will go to an undisclosed country to join his family.
Biden held 'emotional call' with families of Americans freed by Iran
The White House announced that Joe Biden this morning “held an emotional call with the families of the seven American citizens who are returning home to the United States from Iran.”
“Each family member who joined the call spoke with the president,” it added in a statement, which also confirmed the group had departed Doha, Qatar for the United States.
Updated
Americans released by Iran depart Qatar for United States
The five Americans released by Iran today in a prisoner swap have departed Doha, Qatar for the United States, Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Qatar helped broker the deal between the two archenemy nations, and the group of former detainees along with two American family members that had been prevented from leaving Iran were flown earlier today from Tehran to the Gulf nation.
World leaders meeting at the United Nations in New York on Monday warned of the peril the world faces unless it acts with urgency to rescue a set of 2030 development goals to wipe out hunger and extreme poverty and to battle climate change, Reuters reports.
The news agency further writes:
Their declaration, adopted by consensus at a summit before the annual U.N. General Assembly, embraces a 2015 “to-do” list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals that also include water, energy, reducing inequality and achieving gender equality.
“The achievement of the SDGs is in peril,” the declaration reads. “We are alarmed that the progress on most of the SDGs is either moving much too slowly or has regressed below the 2015 baseline.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit of leaders that only 15% of the targets are on track and that many are going in reverse.
Earlier this month, Guterres called on G20 leaders to ensure a stimulus of at least $500 billion per year towards meeting the goals. He called on countries to act now.
The leaders are meeting in the shadow of geopolitical tensions - largely fueled by the war in Ukraine - as Russia and China vie with the United States and Europe to win over developing countries, where achieving the Sustainable Development Goals are key.
“Instead of leaving no one behind, we risk leaving the SDGs behind ... the SDGs need a global rescue plan,” Guterres told the summit.
The U.N. said this month that there are 745 million more moderately to severely hungry people in the world today than in 2015, and the world is far off track in its efforts to meet the ambitious United Nations goal to end hunger by 2030.
United Nations General Assembly vital summit
The United Nations General Assembly is getting underway in New York with world leaders flying in and the biggest leaders getting ready to deliver their headline speeches tomorrow.
Joe Biden has already traveled north and has a couple of Democratic fundraising events this evening in the Big Apple.
Tomorrow, the US president will speak at the UN headquarters, following the major opening address by the UN secretary general António Guterres. Guterres will be followed by Brazil’s Lula and then Biden. We expect Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who appeared by video link last year but is attending in person this year, to make his speech around noon local time at a crucial time in the counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion 1.5 years ago.
The Ukraine war will be the dominant topic, especially in the absence of Russia and China’s leaders.
But Reuters adds:
With the world on track to break the record for the hottest year in history, world leaders, business leaders, celebrities and activists have converged on midtown Manhattan for Climate Week and the U.N.’s Climate Action Summit, again focusing the world’s attention on the climate crisis. The annual climate gathering coincides with the start of the United Nations General Assembly, bringing heads of state and top government officials together with private-sector leaders to focus on climate change in a year marked by a record number of billion-dollar disasters, including eight severe floods.
The main event will take place Wednesday when Guterres will host his own Climate Action Summit, a high-profile event meant to reverse backsliding on Paris climate agreement goals and to encourage governments to adopt serious new actions to combat climate change.
“There is lingering doubt that ... we can meet our climate goals. There is too much backtracking; so we’re really hoping that this summit can be used as a moment to inspire people,” Selwin Hart, special adviser on climate to the secretary-general, said in an interview.
Updated
Freed Americans on flight to US, source says
The five Americans freed from imprisonment in Iran are now on a flight bound for the US, Reuters reports.
Citing an unnamed source, the news agency just reported that an aircraft has departed Doha, the capital of Qatar, where the Americans had been taken as an interim stage, en route for the States.
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The day so far
Five detained Americans and two of their family members have been allowed to leave Iran, in a deal with the Biden administration that saw Washington release five jailed Iranians and $6b in oil proceeds, which Tehran can only spend on humanitarian supplies. The agreement comes as the United Nations general assembly kicks off in New York, but it’s too soon to say if the agreement between the two archenemy nations will lead to further negotiations down the road.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi described the release of the Americans as “purely a humanitarian action”.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman, credited “all of you who didn’t allow the world to forget me” for his release.
Hunter Biden sued the IRS, arguing that the tax authority broke the law by failing to protect his privacy when two agents went public with claims of political meddling in their investigation.
Businessman Siamak Namazi said in a statement released on his behalf, “I would not be free today, if it wasn’t for all of you who didn’t allow the world to forget me,” the Associated Press reports.
Namazi was among the five Americans released by Iran today in exchange for the freeing of five Iranians detained in the United States and access to $6b in money from oil sales Tehran can spend only on humanitarian supplies.
Namazi continued:
Thank you for being my voice when I could not speak for myself and for making sure I was heard when I mustered the strength to scream from behind the impenetrable walls of Evin Prison.”
A dual US-Iranian national, Namazi was detained in 2015 while visiting family in Tehran. Months later, his father, Baquer, was detained when he came to visit him in jail, before being released in 2022.
Iran president Raisi calls release of Americans 'purely a humanitarian action'
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly in New York, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi cast Tehran’s release of five Americans as “a humanitarian action”, and hinted that similar deals could be possible, Reuters reports.
“This was purely a humanitarian action … And it can certainly be a step based upon which in the future other humanitarian actions can be taken,” the Iranian leader, who was elected in 2021, told reporters.
Updated
In his remarks to reporters, secretary of state Antony Blinken said seven, not five, Americans had been released by Iran.
Blinken included in that number two Americans who had been prevented from leaving the country.
“Just a few minutes ago, I had the great pleasure of speaking to seven Americans who are now free, free from their imprisonment or detention in Iran, out of Iran, out of prison, and now in Doha enroute back to the United States, to be reunited with their loved ones,” Blinken said.
“Five of the seven, of course, had been unjustly detained, imprisoned in Iran, some for years. Two others had been prevented from leaving Iran.”
Blinken says $6bn can only be used for humanitarian supplies
In a briefing to reporters, secretary of state Antony Blinken said the $6bn in money from oil sales released to Iran can only be used to buy humanitarian supplies:
Updated
The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour reports today’s prisoner swap with Iran may be a prelude to bigger deals between the United States and one of its top global antagonists:
Soon after her release, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe remarked that freedom for a former Iranian political prisoner is never complete since those freed always recall those left behind.
But when five Americans released from Iranian captivity touch down in Qatar on their way back to their families, the mood will be simple, joyous and emotional. By contrast, the drawn out diplomacy that has led to this moment has been the polar opposite – complex, fraught and calculating.
Iranian-US relations, always one long bargain, are in flux, with currents heading in different directions, some towards confrontation and others towards a de-escalation of tensions. It has been unclear for months whether Joe Biden’s administration favoured one option above the other, or indeed preferred the status quo.
But in taking the decision to release $6bn of Iranian oil proceeds frozen in a South Korean bank account by US sanctions the US president prioritised securing the release of the five, some of whom have been in jail for a decade. That is a tribute to the public campaigns calling for their release, but it may also signal a new direction in western diplomacy to Iran.
Biden has taken a double risk; he is taking flak from Republicans who argue the deal will encourage further state hostage-taking and who feel emboldened to claim that confrontation with Iran remains the only viable strategy, as it has ever since Donald Trump in 2018 abandoned the nuclear deal signed in 2015 by Barack Obama.
He also faces criticism from less partisan sources. The deal, after all, has been struck at a time when the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, is selling Iranian-made drones to Russia to hammer down on Ukrainian cities. Some in the diaspora feel that by acting so soon after the first anniversary of the death of Mahsa Amini in a Tehran police cell, the Biden team has shown it puts American self-interest ahead of Iranians’ struggle for human rights. It is at minimum a pragmatic admission that Raisi is politically secure, and the protests are over.
Iran’s state-owned PressTV reports the United States has released five jailed Iranians as part of the conditions of today’s prisoner swap:
All five Iranians detained by US now freed, two en route to Tehran. pic.twitter.com/XZ9R83hNmn
— PTVBreaking (@PTVBreaking1) September 18, 2023
Most of the Iranians were jailed for breaching US sanctions against Tehran, but it’s not clear if all want to return to the country, and as PressTV reports, only two are on their way back to Iran.
Footage shows freed Americans arriving in Qatar
Here’s video of the moment the plane carrying the five Americans freed from detention in Iran arrived in Doha, Qatar:
Freed Americans met by US and Qatari officials as they arrive in Doha
The freed Americans have disembarked at Doha International Airport in Qatar, where they were met by US and Qatari officials, Reuters reports.
Switzerland’s ambassador was aboard the plane they arrived on, a witness said. US officials embraced the now-former detainees at the airport.
Updated
Biden announces release of 'innocent Americans' from Iran, new sanctions
Joe Biden has confirmed the freeing of “innocent Americans” from Iran, while announcing new sanctions on a former president and the country’s intelligence agency for wrongfully detaining its citizens:
Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home.
Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and two citizens who wish to remain private will soon be reunited with their loved ones—after enduring years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering. I am grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the Governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland, and South Korea.
I give special thanks to the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, and to the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, both of whom helped facilitate this agreement over many months of difficult and principled American diplomacy.
As we celebrate the return of these Americans, we also remember those who did not return. I call on the Iranian regime to give a full account of what happened to Bob Levinson. The Levinson family deserves answers. Today, we are sanctioning former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence under the Levinson Act for their involvement in wrongful detentions. And, we will continue to impose costs on Iran for their provocative actions in the region.
The president also urged Americans to avoid travel to the country, which has repeatedly jailed US citizens:
And as we welcome home our fellow citizens, I once more remind all Americans of the serious risks of traveling to Iran. American passport holders should not travel there.
The U.S. State Department has a longstanding travel warning that states: “Do not travel to Iran due to the risk of kidnapping and the arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.” All Americans should heed those words and have no expectation that their release can be secured if they do not.
Iran remains one of the United States’s major antagonists, but Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is nonetheless expected to arrive in New York today for the United Nations general assembly.
The city’s role as host of the global body means leaders from all over the world, even countries on poor terms with the United States, travel there occasionally for the global body’s annual summits. Here are photos of Raisi in Iran, as he boarded his flight to the United States:
Iran releases five jailed Americans in return for $6bn in oil money
Five Americans detained in Iran are on their way home after the Biden administration brokered a deal for their release in exchange for unfreezing $6b in oil money.
Here’s the latest on the prisoner swap, from the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour:
Five US prisoners detained in Iran, some for nearly a decade, have left the country by plane to Qatar, as part of a controversial prisoner swap involving the unfreezing by the Biden administration of $6bn (£4.8bn) of Iranian oil money.
Tehran and Washington had agreed to swap five prisoners each, including the conservationist Morad Tahbaz, a British-American citizen.
In an elaborate and delicate diplomatic deal, months in the making, the five Americans were taken from hotels in Tehran to a plane bound for Qatar, the first stage in a journey that would take them on flights to Washington.
Qatar has been acting as the mediator for the deal, commencing with the electronic transfer of the Iranian cash to bank accounts in Qatar and Switzerland. The prisoners were allowed to board the plane only after the cash transfer was completed. Apart from Tahbaz, the identity of only two other Americans has been made public.
Republican senators in the US and some former Iranian political detainees have accused Joe Biden of striking a deal that will only encourage Iran to keep hostage-taking as a central part of its diplomatic arsenal. The US state department says the money that is being released is oil money owed to Iran and frozen by the Trump administration in 2018 when the US left the Iran nuclear deal.
Updated
Arguing that he’s a “private citizen”, Hunter Biden’s defenders have increasingly turned to lawsuits as a tactic against the ongoing onslaught of Republican allegations against him.
The suit filed today against the IRS comes after two agents went public with allegations that the investigation into the president’s son’s alleged failure to pay income tax was hamstrung by political considerations. Last week, a FBI agent contradicted the testimony of one of the IRS whistleblowers, the New York Times reported.
Earlier last week, Biden’s attorneys sued Garrett Ziegler, a former Donald Trump White House aide, for improperly spreading embarrassing images and emails from the president’s son online. Here’s more on that suit, from Reuters:
The lawyers of U.S. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against an aide in the White House of former President Donald Trump over the aide’s alleged role in publication of embarrassing emails and images.
The lawsuit accuses Garrett Ziegler, a former aide to Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, of violating California’s computer fraud and data access laws, and demands a jury trial. The 14-page complaint was filed in a California federal court.
Ziegler and other unnamed defendants are accused of obtaining “tens of thousands of emails, thousands of photos, and dozens of videos and recordings” belonging to the president’s son and spreading them online.
The suit accuses the former Trump aide of “accessing, tampering with, manipulating, altering, copying and damaging computer data that they do not own.” A computer fraud sentence can carry prison time or a fine in California.
Data that has been accessed and copied includes Hunter Biden’s credit card details, financial and bank records, and “information of the type contained in a file of a consumer reporting agency,” the suit says.
At least some of the data “originally was stored on the plaintiff’s iPhone and backed-up to plaintiff’s iCloud storage,” and accessed by “circumventing technical or code-based barriers that were specifically designed and intended to prevent such access.”
Hunter Biden’s legal and political problems are connected to his drug use and his quest for business deals in foreign countries. Now they’re at the center of the impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden, as well as the federal prosecution of Hunter and his counteroffensive of lawsuits against those involved in helping the GOP make their case. Last week, the Guardian’s Mary Yang put together a recap of the complicated saga, including the IRS whistleblower allegations that are at the center of the lawsuit he filed against the tax agency today:
Federal prosecutors indicted Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, over illegally possessing a firearm in Delaware on Thursday. The indictment comes a month after the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, appointed the US attorney David Weiss, a Trump nominee, to oversee the investigation as special counsel.
Hunter Biden has been at the center of a years-long investigation into his tax affairs that was set to close with a guilty plea. But that plea deal fell apart at a Delaware courthouse after the Trump-appointed judge said she could not agree to the agreement, which ensured Biden would avoid jail time in a separate case of illegally possessing a gun while using drugs.
Amid the controversy, the president has repeatedly said he supports his son and Hunter has been seen regularly at family events. Asked if President Biden would pardon his son in the event of any conviction, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters: “No.”
But the younger Biden has been embroiled in a list of unrelated controversies for years, including his overseas dealings and struggles with addiction, which ex-President Trump and his allies have regularly sought to use as fodder for attacks.
Here’s a comprehensive timeline of the moments that have propelled Hunter Biden into the limelight:
Hunter Biden sues IRS over disclosures of tax information
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Hunter Biden has filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reports, alleging that the tax authority released his information illegally. The suit targets the actions of two agents who claimed to be whistleblowers and gave interviews to Congress and others about the long-running investigation into his business dealings, alleging those actions violated Biden’s right to privacy. Biden is seeking $1,000 in damages per unauthorized disclosure of his personal information, attorneys fees and the release of all documents related to the case. Last week, Hunter Biden was indicted on gun charges related to lying about his drug use while purchasing a firearm, a development that came about after a plea deal intended to resolve the federal investigation into his conduct collapsed. The same week, Republican speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced the chamber would begin an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over the long-running corruption allegations against Hunter, despite Republicans having neither definitive proof, nor necessarily the votes (yet) to successfully impeach the president.
Here’s what else is going on today:
Biden is heading to New York City for fundraisers ahead of an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly and meetings with foreign leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday.
McCarthy and the House Republicans continue to squabble over an agreement to fund the government ahead of an end-of-the-month deadline after which it will shut down.
One conservative House Republican does not think impeaching Biden is a good idea.
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