American imprisoned in Iran speaks out

Amanpour

CNN

News

4.1 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today's show begins with an extremely difficult conversation under highly unusual circumstances. Siamak Namazi is an Iranian-American businessman who has been imprisoned in Iran for over seven years. While several American detained in Iran have been released as part of prisoner swaps with the US -- Namazi's own father was released on medical grounds last October -- Siamak continues to languish in prison, even going on a week-long hunger strike back in January and writing a letter to President Biden. Now he tells Christiane he feels so alone, abandoned, and out of options that he's decided to come to us, hoping to beseech Biden to help him and other imprisoned Iranian Americans. Next, to dig a little deeper into the plight of Namazi and his fellow American detainees, Christiane speaks with Johns Hopkins professor Vali Nasr, himself an Iranian American and formerly a senior adviser at the US State Department. Also on today's show: Michael R. Gordon, National Security Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to Amunpur. Here's what's coming up.
0:07.0	The other hostages and I desperately need President Biden to finally hear us out, to finally hear our cry for help and
0:16.8	bring us home.
0:17.8	A cry for help from an Iranian prison.
0:21.1	In an unprecedented conversation, I speak with the detained Iranian
0:25.1	American Siamak Namasi from inside Evin, his desperate plea to President
0:30.6	Biden. Plus analysis with the former State Department advisor Valley
0:35.0	NASA and...
0:36.0	You're dealing with a potential adversary, really, that has the home court advantage.
0:41.0	Is the United States ready for the era of great power conflict?
0:45.0	Walter Isakson speaks to Michael Gordon, National Security Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. Welcome to the program everyone. I'm Christina Montpour in New York and tonight we have an extremely
1:08.9	difficult important and highly compelling conversation in hugely unusual circumstances.
1:16.0	C. Armagnamazie is an Iranian American businessman imprisoned in Iran for over seven years.
1:22.0	He spoke to me over the phone from inside the notorious
1:25.8	Aevine prison giving us a first-hand look at the desperation of foreign
1:30.4	nationals dual citizens detained in that country.
1:34.4	I first interviewed Siamag back in the early 2000s during the reform era, a very different
1:40.4	Iran then.
1:41.7	He was a prominent businessman and an analyst trying to build
1:44.9	relations between Iran and the West. Siamak was arrested during a 2015
1:50.0	business trip and convicted of cooperating with a hostile foreign government.
1:55.0	Only that government is the United States and he is a US citizen.
	...

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