Thank you, Iran! Trump says 'deal is possible' after Tehran releases US Navy vet
US President Donald Trump has praised Tehran for releasing US Navy veteran Michael White, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018, hinting that the breakthrough may pave way for a new nuclear deal.
“I just got off the phone with former American hostage Michael White, who is now in Zurich after being released from Iran. He will be on a U.S. plane shortly, and is COMING HOME to the United States,” Trump tweeted on Thursday evening, before giving credit to the Islamic Republic for its cooperation in the process.
Thank you Iran, it shows a deal is possible!
I just got off the phone with former American hostage Michael White, who is now in Zurich after being released from Iran. He will be on a U.S. plane shortly, and is COMING HOME...
White was taken into custody by the Iranian authorities back in June 2018, when he was visiting his girlfriend. The California native, who served 13 years in the US Navy, was then sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and sharing a private photo on social media.
...to the UNITED STATES! We have now brought more than 40 American hostages and detainees back home since I took office. Thank you to Iran, it shows a deal is possible!
As the Covid-19 outbreak swept through the country, the Iranian government ordered thousands of inmates to be sent home in a bid to curb the pandemic.
White was one of some 85,000 prisoners that were temporarily freed from jail, and remained in custody at the Swiss embassy in Tehran until this week.
A total of 164,270 people tested positive for the coronavirus in Iran as of Thursday, with the authorities warning about a "second wave" of the deadly disease amid an upstick in new cases.
A rare praise from Trump to Tehran comes as the tensions between the two countries continue to run high.
The US quit the landmark Iran nuclear deal, formally known as The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018, leaving it hanging in the balance and torpedoing the efforts by the remaining parties to the universally-acclaimed deal to salvage it by threatening secondary sanctions.
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