Iran’s latest hostages

With Iran holding five British yachtsmen, who were en route to a sailing race in Dubai, for the last five days to determine if they have "evil intentions," it’s worth revisiting Karim Sadjadpour’s recent FP piece on why Iran keeps arresting foreigners it knows to be innocent — in that case the Iranian-American scholar Kian ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

With Iran holding five British yachtsmen, who were en route to a sailing race in Dubai, for the last five days to determine if they have "evil intentions," it's worth revisiting Karim Sadjadpour's recent FP piece on why Iran keeps arresting foreigners it knows to be innocent -- in that case the Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh:

With Iran holding five British yachtsmen, who were en route to a sailing race in Dubai, for the last five days to determine if they have "evil intentions," it’s worth revisiting Karim Sadjadpour’s recent FP piece on why Iran keeps arresting foreigners it knows to be innocent — in that case the Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh:

The over-the-top severity of the sentence makes it eminently clear that this case really has little to do with Kian, and everything to do with Iran’s negotiating posture toward the United States. A disaffected contact in the Iranian foreign ministry — the vast majority of whom were thought to have voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi — bluntly confirmed my suspicions. "Eena daran bazi mikonan," he told me. "These guys are just playing."

 

While neighboring Dubai and Turkey have managed to build thriving economies by trading in goods and services, Iran, even 30 years after the revolution, remains in the business of trading in human beings. In addition to Kian, Iran is now holding at least five other American citizens against their will, including three young hikers — Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal (an outspoken Palestinian-rights activist) — detained in June along the Iran-Iraq border in Kurdistan.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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