The State Department confirmed this week that the Islamist terror regime in Iran had kidnapped an American journalist, Reza Valizadeh, in a statement to the Associated Press.
Valizadeh is a dual American-Iranian citizen and former reporter for Radio Farda, the Iranian wing of the greater Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) network, and Radio Farda reported his disappearance, citing anonymous family members, in September, but the Iranian regime has not confirmed his imprisonment, nor has any information surfaced explaining his detention.
Iran marked the 45th anniversary on Monday of the siege of the American embassy in Tehran, a critical act of violence in the greater Iranian revolution that brought the current terror regime to power. Iranian officials have significantly increased the volume of violent rhetoric against America and Israel in the past two weeks, part of Tehran’s greater war against Israel using terror proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, and recently executed a California man imprisoned for years on dubious charges of “terrorism.”
Iran’s violent behavior has not improved under the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden, who has prioritized conciliatory policies towards the regime. Biden has notoriously freed billions of dollars in Iranian assets to the regime, enabling the bankrolling of major terrorist groups around the world and the fast-tracking of Iran’s illicit nuclear program. While attempts to rehabilitate the disgraced 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement failed, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has loudly condemned Iran for flagrantly disregarding international law in the past year.
A senior Iranian official, Strategic Council on Foreign Relations head Kamal Kharrazi, suggested on Friday that Iran may soon approve the development of a nuclear bomb if necessary to attack Israel.
“If the Islamic Republic of Iran faces an existential threat, we will inevitably change the policy of our military doctrine [to allow nuclear weapons],” Kharrazi said, according to the Iranian state outlet PressTV. “We now have the necessary capability to produce [nuclear] weapons, and the only obstacle is the Leader’s fatwa that prohibits the production of nuclear weapons.”
Iran has for years claimed that “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa, or religious edict, banning nuclear weapons, but has issued no evidence, including the documentation typical of legitimate fatwas, that such an edict exists.
Valizadeh’s disappearance in September occurred in this greater context of rogue Iranian behavior. The State Department offered minimal information to the Associated Press on the journalist’s current situation.
“We are working with our Swiss partners who serve as the protecting power for the United States in Iran to gather more information about this case,” the State Department explained. “Iran routinely imprisons U.S. citizens and other countries’ citizens unjustly for political purposes. This practice is cruel and contrary to international law.”
RFE/RL reported that in August, shortly before Valizadeh’s disappearance, he published a strange post on the social messaging site Twitter in which he claimed to have returned to Iran voluntarily and had “unfinished negotiations” with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Valizadeh had last posted to the site before the mystery message in February.
Valizadeh is the first American Iran has imprisoned since September 2023, when Biden approved a deal in which Iran freed five Americans in exchange for $6 billion. The hostage trade outraged many Americans, including some with family still imprisoned in Iran, but the Biden administration insisted the money was “not a ransom” and suggested Iran could only use the money for legitimate expenses. A little over a year later, the Iranian terror proxy Hamas staged a massive attack in Israel, invading the country and killing 1,200 people in addition to abducting over 200 others and engaging in widespread human rights atrocities. Iran is the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism; the State Department estimates Iran spends about $100 million a year funding Hamas and similar Palestinian terrorist groups.
Iran outraged the Iranian-American community last week with the execution of California man Jamshid Sharmahd, who held dual German-Iranian citizenship and was publicly opposed to the terrorist regime. Sharmahd was a longtime United States resident, and relatives have stated that, prior to his abduction by the Iranian regime in Dubai, Sharmahd was working towards obtaining American citizenship. Tehran sentenced him to death in September 2023, claiming he had participated in the bombing of a mosque in 2008; authorities presented no material evidence to back the claim and American and German officials condemned his imprisonment as a kidnapping.
Iranian officials claimed last week, following his killing, that Sharmahd was working “under orders from masters in Western intelligence agencies, the United States and the child-killing Zionist regime.”
Gazelle Sharmahd, Jamshid Sharmahd’s daughter, published a statement shortly after his killing condemning the “incompetent” American and German governments for not doing enough to save him.
“YOU left him to die, while the Biden-Harris Administration handed $6 billion to his captors and, if confirmed, his murderers,” she declared.
The younger Sharmahd had been a loud critic of the $6 billion agreement with Iran, accusing Biden of abandoning her father while empowering Iran to persecute more outspoken dissidents. In an August 2023 interview, before the $6 billion exchange was complete, Gazelle noted her father “chose the United States as his home, worked hard, followed all the rules, belongs to a family of four generations around him of U.S. citizenship, lived here for 20 years as a tax-paying, law-abiding resident and would already have his citizenship if it wasn’t for the terrorists.”
Germany recalled its ambassador to Iran in response to Sharmahd’s killing; the Biden administration has not taken any action as of press time.