US National Security Adviser Attributes Princeton Scholar's Release To Pressure On Iran

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th December, 2019) US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said Sunday the government's policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran helped secure the release of a US graduate student who had been held in Iran for three years.

"We had a maximum pressure campaign on Iran. I think that maximum pressure campaign had an impact and was in part responsible for this release," O'Brien told the CBS news channel.

Xiyue Wang from Princeton University freed on Saturday in a prisoner swap that also saw Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani being released from an Atlanta prison where he was being held for allegedly breaching US sanctions.

O'Brien said sanctions on Iran would not be "let up" until it abandoned its nuclear program and "malign activities" in the region. Tehran has denied trying to build a nuclear bomb.

"In meantime we would love to sit down with them and talk about all the other detainees. We want to get every single American home," the security official continued.

Four other Americans are believed to be in Iranian prisons. The US channel identified them as father and son Siamak and Baquer Namazi, navy veteran Michael White and former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who has been held in Iran for 12 years.