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Former Captive: Iran Incentivized to Take Hostages after U.S. Prisoners Freed
(The National-Abu Dhabi) Tariq Tahir - The release from prison of four Americans by Iran in return for the unfreezing of funds could "incentivize" Tehran to take more hostages, former captive Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert has warned. She said the deal in which South Korea unfroze $6 billion of Iranian funds amounted to the paying of a "ransom." The Australian-British academic was held in prison on trumped-up espionage charges, detained for 804 days, and spent months in solitary confinement before being released in a prisoner swap in November 2020. A former lecturer in Islamic studies, she had been invited by an Iranian university to join a seminar on Shiite Islam. Dr. Moore-Gilbert said the deal was the third "major cash-for-hostages deal Western countries have agreed upon with Iran, and by far the most lucrative, with the Americans transferring more than $1 billion per hostage." "Iran's hostage diplomacy strategy must be actively and resolutely curtailed to prevent further ransom payments and further hostage-takings. The Americans in particular must develop policy in this area to establish red lines around negotiating the release for American hostages abroad, and in my view, they should rule out any future cash-for-hostages deals, as they do when a non-state actor kidnaps an American citizen."