REUNITED

American Grad Student Held in Iran Since 2016 to Be Freed in Swap

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the release is part of a prisoner exchange program in which an Iranian held in the U.S. will also be released.

An American grad student who was arrested in Iran in 2016 and charged with “spying under the cover of research” will be returned to the United States after the Swiss government brokered a prisoner exchange deal. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that Princeton scholar Xiyue Wang, and Massoud Soleiami, an Iranian professor who was arrested in Chicago in 2018 for trying to smuggle biological materials to Iran, will both go home. “Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly,” Zarif tweeted Saturday. “Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government.” The Swiss government represents all American interests in Iran after the two nations cut ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The White House also confirmed the release in a statement early Saturday, thanking Switzerland and declaring Wang is “returning to the United States.”