| Obama calls on Teheran to free three American hikers |
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama called on Iran Friday to “immediately release” three American hikers being held by the Islamic republic, saying they had never worked for the US government and committed “absolutely no crime.”
Obama, ahead of the one-year anniversary on Saturday of the hikers’ arrest, said the trio were “simply open-minded and adventurous young people who represent the best of America, and of the human spirit.”
The hikers — Shane Bauer, 27, Sarah Shourd, 31, and Josh Fattal, 27 — have “never had any quarrel with the government of Iran, and have great respect for the Iranian people,” the US president said.
“I call on the Iranian government to immediately release Sarah, Shane and Josh,” he said, adding that their “unjust detention has nothing to do with the issues that continue to divide the US and the international community from the Iranian government.”
Iranian authorities detained the group near the Iraq border during what the trio said was a hiking holiday in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq.
Earlier on Friday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the mothers of the hikers also renewed appeals for the trio’s release.
“Their release by Iran is long overdue and their continued detention is unjustifiable,” Clinton said in a statement.
“We urge Iran to take action in the case of the three hikers... We call on Iran to do the right thing and allow these three Americans to return home to their families,” she said.
In New York about 50 people, including the group’s mothers, demonstrated outside the Iranian mission to the United Nations carrying placards that said “Shame on you Iran” and “One year is enough — let them go.”
Obama in his statement said he wanted to “particularly acknowledge the suffering and advocacy of Sarah, Shane and Josh’s families,” adding he had spoken with their mothers.
“The Iranian government’s gesture of allowing these mothers to visit their children was welcome, but I cannot imagine how painful it was for these three courageous women to return home without their children,” Obama said.
Cindy Hickey, mother of Shane Bauer, meanwhile in New York denounced the “political” and “unjust” detention, while Nora Shourd, mother of Sarah, said: “We want to bring them home.”
Agencies
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