The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday calling for Iran to immediately release three Americans wrongfully imprisoned and for Iran to help in locating a missing fourth American.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell singed out Abedini who has been imprisoned for two and a half years because of his Christian faith.
“One of those Americans, Saeed Abedini, has reportedly been held prisoner for what would appear to be the supposed ‘crime’ of attempting to build and operate an orphanage. Beaten, denied access to medical care, and locked away in solitary confinement — that’s apparently how the Iranian regime deals with those who dare to show love and compassion to others,” he said.
The bill passed 90-0 with ten Senators missing. Several were on the campaign trail but their spokesman said they supported the bill.
“No American should find this acceptable. Just as no American should find it acceptable to unjustly imprison a reporter, or a grandson coming to see his grandmother. I think we can all agree that, at the very least, the American government should not be rewarding Iran for its disgraceful human-rights abuses — that we should not be granting Iran access to the funding it desires to further its nuclear weapons program and terrorist proxies while this exploitation continues,” said McConnell.
“They shouldn’t have sat down at the table before these four people were released, or accounted for,” Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) told The Hill.
Saeed noted in a letter to his supporters and family that his birthday this year fell on the National Day of Prayer in America.
“As an American and as a prisoner for Christ, I have spent many hours praying and crying out to God for revival for this great nation. We all hope for the success of our nation and for America to be blessed, but without revival there can be no true success or blessing. As Ezra’s cried out to God in repentance and the Israelites joined him in weeping bitterly and turning from their sin, I would like to ask you to join me in repenting and praying for revival,” Abedini’ letter begins.
The American Center for Law and Justice, who represents the family, said the letter was given to a family member in Iran last week.
The ACLJ said that Abedini’s letter focused on American Christians and a call upon them to turn back to God and make Him the center of their lives.
“Change starts with us. Revival starts with us. The first step to revival is praying together in unity as a nation. the National Day of Prayer is a great opportunity for us to come out and use the freedom that we have been given. So many Christians around the world are imprisoned and martyred for their faith in Jesus,” Abedini wrote.
“You have the freedom to gather across the United States at your state capitol to pray. Please use this opportunity. Please use your freedom for the kingdom of God.”
The White House has stated that they may veto a proposed amendment that would require Pastor Saeed Abedini and three other Americans held captive in Iran be released as part of any Iranian nuclear deal.
“That is simply unbelievable. Refusing to discuss the Americans being held hostage by Iran at the bargaining table and rejecting any congressional attempt to make any deal with Iran contingent on the release of the Americans is unacceptable. It’s quite frankly appalling,” the American Center for Law and Justice wrote in an update on Thursday.”
Naghmeh Abedini, Saeed’s wife, continues to advocate for her husband’s release said,
“Our government must not forget that Saeed is not being held by the reformists with whom they negotiate, but by radical hardliners who oppose what he represents – a Christian convert and a U.S. citizen,” she said. “We cannot leave my husband’s fate in the hands of these radicals. I implore our government to remember the urgency of bringing Saeed home to our family.”
The release was a response to a statement by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
“Our first priority is to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “
“The President would certainly veto any amendment or any bill with an amendment that undermined the unanimous compromise that was reached in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee or that interfered with the ongoing negotiations,” Earnest said.
“Certainly a provision, an amendment, that made this nuclear deal contingent on Iran’s release of those three American citizens would fall, I think frankly, into both categories.”
The wife of wrongly imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini says the guards at the prison where he’s being held tell him that unless he renounces Christ, he will never be released.
“Last week had been quite difficult for Saeed. He has been under a lot of pressure and attack from the hardliners. The guards have also been threatening Saeed that he will never go free and additional charges (and years) will be added to his sentence (which they have done to other Christians and fellow inmates),” said the pastor’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, according to American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
“They continually threaten Saeed that the only key to his freedom is denying Christ and returning to Islam. Saeed refuses to deny Christ and continues to be a light and witness in that dark prison. These threats, coupled with the fact that there have been mass executions during the last week in Rajayee Shahr prison, have really taken their toll on Saeed. He asks for prayer for continued strength,” she said.
Saeed has been imprisoned for more than two and a half years for his Christian faith.
The ACLJ is calling on U.S. officials to raise the situation with Abedini when they return to the negotiating table with Iran on April 21st.
“Our government must do everything in its power to bring pastor Saeed home. It is absolutely critical that the Obama administration and the State Department continue to demand that our innocent citizens — especially pastor Saeed who is suffering only because of his religious beliefs — be returned home,” said the organization. “He suffers from injuries. He is separated from his family. He is persecuted for his faith. He is surrounded by fellow inmates being dragged to the gallows. The thought is unbearable.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told those attending the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony that the world has not learned the lessons of the Holocaust.
Netanyahu used the current situation with Iran and nuclear negotiations as an example of the world not learning lessons regarding appeasement of tyrannical regimes.
“Appeasing tyrannical regimes will only increase their aggression and is an approach that is liable to drag the world into larger wars,” he said. “The bad deal with Iran signals that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned.”
The prime minister continued to say that even if the rest of the world bows down before Iran, Israel will stand alone.
“Even if we are forced to stand alone against Iran we will not fear. In every circumstance we will preserve our right and our ability to defend ourselves,” he added.
Netanyahu said that the world needs to protect the values of freedom and tolerance to ensure that humanity can be free.
A French government fact sheet on the Iranian nuclear deal, not meant for public view but leaked to the Times of Israel, shows that Iran could be able to quickly generate material needed for a nuclear bomb.
The deal allows Iran use of the IR-2 and IR-4 centrifuges, which can rapidly create highly enriched uranium that is needed for nuclear weapons.
In addition, the deal allows Iran to continue their research and development on the IR-4, IR-5, IR-6 and IR-8 centrifuges. The IR-8 centrifuge could enrich uranium at 20 times the speed of the current IR-1 centrifuges. The document released by American officials did not specify this fact.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been assailed by American officials after he said the deal was “very bad” for Israel and paves the way for Iran to create a nuclear bomb. The French document appears to back up the claims of Netanyahu that were criticized by American officials.
This is the second time documents have conflicted with the American “fact sheets” on the Iranian deal.
Israeli analysts noticed differences between the American and Iranian fact sheets just days after the announced deal. Ehud Ya’ari of Israel’s Channel 2 News noticed that while the U.S. says restrictions on enrichment last 15 years, Iranians say it’s only 10. The Iranians also said that they can continue R&D on centrifuges, which the French document confirms, and the American documents say is not permitted.
Israeli officials responded to an interview by President Obama claiming he supports Israel by saying his platitudes are irrelevant if Iran gets a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel’s Channel 2 that while President Obama’s claim it would be a “fundamental failure” of his presidency if Israel is weakened is “pleasant-sounding”, “no assistance and no backing will help if Iran acquires nuclear weapons.”
Steinitz, a colleague of Netanyahu, released a government fact sheet outlining 10 differences in the deal between Israel and American views. Among the questions were what would happen to Iran’s stockpiled enriched uranium and why the lifting of sanctions was not connected to changes in Iranian behavior.
The document concludes “the alternative to this framework is a better deal, one that will significantly dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, bring about a cessation of its aggression in the region and terrorist activities around the world, as well as end its efforts to destroy Israel. The framework deal does not block Iran’s path to the bomb. By removing the sanctions and lifting the main restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in about a decade, this framework paves Iran’s path to a bomb. The result will be a dramatic increase in the risks of nuclear proliferation and an increase in the chances of a terrible war.”
U.S. officials dismissed the Israeli fact sheet and statements regarding the deal. Obama advisor Ben Rhodes said the deal “is the best deal that can emerge from these negotiations” and refused to even consider adding the clause the Iran affirms Israel’s right to exist.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told CNN that while he respects the president, the deal is a threat to the Israeli people.
“I trust the president is doing what he thinks is good for the United States. But I think we can have a legitimate difference of opinion on this,” Netanyahu said.
President Obama admitted Tuesday to NPR, without acknowledging Israeli’s claims from the beginning about this fact, that at the end of the deal Iran would have an “almost zero” breakout time to a nuclear bomb.
President Obama surprised supporters of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his faith by issuing a call for his release.
The President sent a recorded address to the Iranian people on the holiday Nowruz. On that holiday, prisoners are traditionally set free or given reduced sentences. The President said in his address that Pastor Abedini should be released along with other Americans who are being held in Iranian prisons.
“Saeed Abedini of Boise, Idaho has spent two and a half years detained in Iran on charges related to his religious beliefs,” he said. “He must be returned to his wife and two young children, who needlessly continue to grow up without their father.”
Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh Abedini, has met with leaders of the United Nations to have the U.N. secure her husband’s release. The U.N.’s Human Rights Council is now examining the situation to see how they can help obtain Abedini’s release.
Officials with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) say the U.N. Human Rights Council is taking a hard look at the case of Pastor Saeed Abedini and his wrongful imprisonment in Iran.
“The Human Rights Council Working Group looked at the facts, they looked at the evidence and they came to the independent conclusion, as we have, that his detention is arbitrary, that it is in violation of international law and that he should be freed,” Associate Counsel Matthew Clark said to One News Now.
“So the U.N. is taking steps to put out there exactly what is happening and what action needs to be taken by the Iranian government to free him.”
The move by the U.N. is seen as significant to put pressure on Iran in the wake of Abedini’s home country doing nothing to help obtain his release from an Iran prison.
“It’s been nearly two and a half years now since Jacob’s dad, Saeed Abedini, has been imprisoned in Iran because of his Christian faith,” Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ wrote in an article for Fox News.
“And, on this day, the day Jacob turns 7, his dad is still languishing in prison — separated from his son, his daughter and his wife — still in need of medical care, still facing an uncertain fate.”
Imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini was sent an invitation to the birthday party of his son Jacob next week and responded with a letter saying his “chains are keeping me from you.”
He said that Jacob should invite Jesus into his heart and that He will fulfill all of his son’s needs.
The letter was given to a relative of Abedini who was permitted to visit him last week in his prison.
“I saw your beautiful birthday invitation that you had made me and I know how much you want me to be there on your birthday,” the letter reads. “Daddy loves you so much. I long to be there for your birthday and to make this reunion happen, but my chains are keeping me from you.”
“So happy birthday to my big boy and my hero, Jacob Cyrus Abedini,” he wrote.
President Obama had told Jacob he would get his father home for his birthday but so far nothing has been done by the administration to secure the release of the American pastor imprisoned for his faith.