Senator Cruz Decries Obama Administration’s “Unconscionable” Abandonment of American Pastor Saeed

Senator Ted Cruz, a stalwart advocate for American Pastor Saeed Abedini’s freedom, release a statement today condemning the Obama Administration for failing to secure Pastor Saeed’s freedom as part of its negotiations with Iran.

Sen. Cruz stated:

It is unconscionable that senior American diplomats, including the Secretary of State, who were conducting cordial negotiations with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva in the days after Pastor Saeed’s transfer, could not bring themselves to even mention his name, or those of fellow Americans detained in Iran, Amir Hekmati and Robert Levinson.

He noted how the Obama Administration’s inaction at a crucial time is leading to disastrous results for Pastor Saeed and other wrongly detained U.S. citizens.

He explained:

We are informed by administration officials that the issue of the American prisoners is 'on the margins' of more important diplomatic work, and that in any event, President Obama mentioned Abedini and Hekmati to Iranian President Hasan Rouhani when they spoke by telephone in September.

"The President’s action should not have been an end unto itself but rather the first step in a sustained effort to get these men home. Their unconditional release should be central, not peripheral, to any further agreement with Iran. If the United States was prepared to release an Iranian nuclear scientist, Mojtaba Atarodi, as a good faith gesture paving the way to direct negotiations between our two nations for the first time in more than thirty years, the Iranians should have been required to do at least as much.

Sen. Cruz is exactly right: Pastor Saeed’s freedom – that of a U.S. citizen – should be “central, not peripheral” in any engagment with Iran.

Pastor Saeed is now facing repeated robbings and threats at knifepoint in a deadly prison known for prisoner on prisoner violent.

Iran sent Pastor Saeed to disappear, and the Obama Administration has effectively left him for dead.

It is past time for the U.S. government to take this U.S. citizens plight seriously.  We are thankful for Sen. Cruz and number other Members of Congress who have been willing to speak out for Pastor Saeed.