Iranian hardliners released a video on Monday showing a detained Iranian-American businessman for the first time since his arrest in the country a year ago.
The minute-long video featuring Siamak Namazi, who was living in Dubai at the time of his arrest, is a taunting challenge to the United States in the wake of the nuclear deal with Tehran, and highlights recent tensions between the two countries.
It also comes as hardliners in Iran’s security forces continue to target dual nationals and anyone with Western ties after the nuclear deal negotiated by the moderate administration of president Hassan Rouhani.
The montage of clips in the video includes an Iranian drone flying over a US aircraft carrier and American sailors on their knees after being briefly detained by Iran in January. It shows Mr Namazi’s US passport, his Emirates ID card and a clip of him in a conference room, his arms raised at his sides.
At the end of the video, it shows a still image of US Congressman Ed Royce, who chairs the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. It quotes a statement by Mr Royce from last year describing Mr Namazi’s arrest as a “latest show of contempt for America”.
It wasn’t clear why hardliners chose to release the video, which was posted online on Monday by Iran’s state-run Mizan judicial news agency. However, it comes as Mr Namazi, who had previously advocated for closer ties between Iran and the US, faces his one-year anniversary of being detained in Iran.
Mr Namazi is a son of Baquer Namazi, a former Unicef representative who once served as governor of Iran’s Khuzestan province under the US-backed shah. Baquer Namazi has also been arrested after apparently being lured to Iran over his son’s detention.
The two were not released as part of a January deal that freed detained Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian and three other Iranian-Americans in exchange for pardons or charges being dropped against seven Iranians.
* Associated Press
