Full Interview: The Shargi Family on “Face the Nation”
Imprisoned Iranian-American Siamak Namazi says he is going on a seven-day hunger strike — one day for every year he was left behind in a 2016 prisoner exchange — to protest the failing Biden administration in freeing him and other Americans held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison.
Namazi, 51, informed President Biden of his hunger strike in a letter noting that he now holds the “unenviable title of longest Iranian-American hostage in history.”
“All I want, sir, is a minute of your day for the next seven days to think about the tribulations of the US hostages in Iran,” Namazi wrote. “Just one minute of your time for every year of my life I’ve lost in Evin prison after the US government could have saved me but didn’t. That’s all. Alas, since I’m in this cage everything what I have to offer you in return is my further suffering. Therefore I will deny myself food for the same seven days, in the hope that by doing so you will not deny me this small request.”
A lawyer for Namazi told CBS News he handed the letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday. For the past two years, Biden’s team has tried unsuccessfully to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, while also arranging the release of a prisoner. Both efforts stalled and were further complicated by US and Western protests over Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters and other human rights abuses.
The White House has not commented.
The Obama administration secured the release of four Iranian Americans on January 16, 2016, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. Namazi was not included, although US officials who negotiated the deal knew of his detention and had called for his release. The United States completed the prisoner exchange despite Namazi’s continued detention.
Siamak Namazi’s father, Baquer Namazi, who was a United Nations official at the time, was detained in Iran shortly after the US exchange during an attempt to visit his detained son. Both Siamak and Baquer Namazi were later left behind in two other prisoner exchanges carried out by the Trump administration. Iranian authorities finally allowed Baquer, now 86, to leave Iran last October for life-saving medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
“How do you describe what it feels like to be stripped of your humanity and treated instead as some kind of exorbitantly priced item?” writes Siamak Namazi. “How do I explain the devastation my family and I were left with after so many half-hearted prisoner offers crumbled at the last minute”
Siamak Namazi remains incarcerated in Iran’s Evin Prison, along with Americans Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz. Mr. Shargi’s family confirmed to CBS News that the three Americans are now in the same prison ward, since a prison fire broke out last year as the country was engulfed in nationwide protests that continue to this day. US permanent resident Shahab Dalili is also detained in Iran.
Siamak Namazi pleaded with the president to bring all Americans detained in Iran home. “I have implored you in the past to reach out to your moral compass and find the determination to bring US hostages home in Iran,” he wrote. “To no avail. Not only do we remain prisoners of Iran, but you have not even granted a meeting to our families.”
“Only the president of the United States has the power to take us home, if he chooses to do so,” he added.
In a recent interview with “Face the Nation,” Shargi’s wife and two daughters shared their frustration that the families of Americans detained in Iran have not been granted an audience with the president. The families of Trevor Reed and Brittney Griner, both released in prisoner exchanges with Russia last year, have been invited to meet the president ahead of the deals that secured their release.
The Shargi family’s frustration was recently compounded when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated at two press conferences last year that she was unfamiliar with her case. “I just don’t see how I’m supposed to trust my father to be home if the White House doesn’t even know his name,” Shargi’s daughter Hannah told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.
Here is the text of Namazi’s letter to President Biden:
When the Obama administration unknowingly left me in danger and freed the other American citizens held hostage by Iran on January 16, 2016, the US government promised my family to bring me home safely within weeks. And yet, seven years and two presidents later, I remain incarcerated in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, holding that long-awaited IOU along with the unenviable title of longest Iranian-American hostage in history.
My captors enjoy teasing me about this by saying things like, “How can your beloved America be so ruthless? Not one but two US presidents have freed others but left you behind!” Yet my blunt answer deprives them of all satisfaction. I tell them while I remain grossly outraged at the hateful distinction the US government can make among its at-risk citizens, I never forget that it wasn’t Obama or Trump who jailed me on trumped-up charges. Let it be understood what dastardly hostage diplomacy has ruined the lives of so many innocent men and women and their families.
Sadly, I have a much harder time honestly answering a genuine question: “How are you, really?” I know no words that do justice to the ineffable pain I have endured since Iran took me hostage in October 2015. How do you describe what it feels like to be stripped of your humanity and treated instead as a sort of object with an exorbitant price? How do I explain the devastation my family and I were left with after so many half-hearted prisoner offers crumbled at the last minute, turning freedom into a chimera? How do I convey the heartbreaking dread that comes with not knowing when or how this nightmare will end or even what comes next?
Day after day I ignore the intense pain I always carry with me and do my best to fight this grave injustice. Surely you will not be surprised to hear that my persistence has yielded no positive results and that my repeated calls for the rule of law and the demonstration of humanity have fallen on deaf ears here. Maybe I’m lucky that it is. After all, today the whole world is witnessing how atrociously this regime can respond to those who dare to claim their basic rights.
The extent of my captors’ ruthlessness isn’t the only thing I’ve learned so much more about during these insufferable years. I know now that I shouldn’t get hopes up when senior US officials say rescuing the hostages in Iran is their top priority. Such well-intentioned declarations can be repeated year after year with no tangible results. Only the President of the United States has the power to take us home, should he choose to. That’s why, Mr. Biden, on the seventh anniversary of the Obama administration’s departure, I’m once again risking a direct appeal to you.
In the past I have implored you to reach out to your moral compass and find the determination to bring US hostages home in Iran. Uselessly. Not only do we remain captives of Iran, but you have not even granted a meeting to our families.
So today I feel compelled to edit my question. All I want, sir, is a minute of your day for the next seven days to think about the tribulations of the US hostages in Iran. Just one minute of your time for every year of my life I’ve lost in Evin prison after the US government could have saved me but didn’t. That’s all. Alas, since I’m in this cage all I have to offer you in return is my further suffering. Therefore I will deny myself food for the same seven days, in the hope that by doing so you will not deny me this small request.
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