Americans freed from jail leave Iran

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

TEHRAN, iran — Two Americans jailed in Iran as spies left Tehran today bound for the Gulf state of Oman, closing a high-profile drama with archfoe Washington that brought more than two years of hope and heartbreak for the families.

In the end, Iran’s clerics opted for a near mirror image of last year’s release of a third American captured with the other two — opening the doors of Tehran’s Evin prison in exchange of $500,000 bail each while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was preparing for the spotlight in New York for the U.N.’s annual gathering of world leaders.

The overjoyed families of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were waiting anxiously in Oman to greet them. They said in a statement that their joy and relief “knows no bounds” and they are looking forward to a new beginning. President Barack Obama called it “wonderful news” and said he was thrilled.

“Today can only be described as the best day of our lives,” the family members said in a joint statement. “We have waited for nearly 26 months for this moment,” it added. “We now all want nothing more than to wrap Shane and Josh in our arms, catch up on two lost years.”

Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with Fattal and Bauer but released a year ago, was also in Oman and signed onto the families’ statement. Shourd received a marriage proposal from Bauer while in prison.

Although the fate of the prisoners gripped America, it was on the periphery of the larger showdowns between Washington and Tehran that include Iran’s nuclear program and its ambitions to widen military and political influence in the Middle East and beyond. But — for a moment at the United Nations at least — U.S. officials and rights group may be adding words of thanks in addition to their calls for alarm over Iran.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Bauer and Fattal left Iran just as darkness fell in the capital Tehran. The fast-moving final steps — from the gray prison gates to Tehran’s urban Mehrabad airport in a diplomatic convoy — came after a week of mixed signals and political brinksmanship within Iran’s leadership.

It began last week with Ahmadinejad promising their release within days. But then came the voice of the hard-line ruling clerics, who have waged a stinging campaign against the president and his allies in recent months as part of power struggle.

The clerics’ appeared to be sending a message that only they have the power to set the timing and ground rules to release the men, who were detained along with Shourd along the Iran-Iraq border in July 2009. The three strongly denied the charges of espionage and said they were merely hikers in Iraq’s relatively peaceful Kurdistan region who wandered close to Iran’s border.

An Omani official told The Associated Press the men were flying to the capital, Muscat. He added that family members are in Muscat to be reunited with Bauer and Fattal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He did not say how long the two men will stay in the Gulf state before heading home to America.

This was the same route followed by last September by Shourd. Oman has close relations with Tehran and Washington and has acted as mediator in the releases and the apparent transfer of the bail money because of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran. Oman plays a strategic role in the region by sharing control with Iran of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which is the route for 40 percent of the world’s oil tanker traffic.

In one possible parting shot by Iran, the release came just minutes before President Barack Obama addressed the U.N. General Assembly. There was no direct evidence that Iran timed the American’s freedom to overshadow Obama’s speech, but Iran has conducted international political stagecraft in the past.

Most famously, Iran waited until just moments after Ronald Reagan’s presidential inauguration in January 1981 to free 52 American hostages held for 444 days at the former U.S. Embassy after it was stormed by militants backing Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The timing was seen as a way to embarrass ex-President Jimmy Carter for his backing of Iran’s former monarch.

Associated Press reporters saw a convoy of vehicles with Swiss and Omani diplomats leaving Evin prison bound for Mehrabad airport, which is near Tehran’s massive Azadi Square. The site is used for military parades but also was a temporary hub for protesters after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009.

Switzerland represents American interests in Iran because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Tehran since after the storming of the embassy.

“I have finished the job that I had to do as their lawyer,” said their defense attorney Masoud Shafiei. He obtained signatures of two judges on a bail-for-freedom deal. A $1 million bail — $500,000 for each one — was posted.

Though the release eases one point of tension between Iran and the U.S., major conflicts still persist.

Washington and European allies worry Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as cover to develop atomic weapons and have urged for even stronger sanctions to pressure Tehran. Iran denies any efforts to make nuclear weapons. Iran, in turn, is deeply concerned about the U.S. military on its borders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sharply denounces U.S. influence in the Middle East.

Bauer and Fattal, both 29, were sentenced last month to eight years each in prison.