Iran’s reported decision in January to detain a British tourist couple is part of a “recurring pattern” that “goes back to the regime’s founding in 1979 with the hostage crisis, where Iranians seized the U.S. embassy and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days,” according to Jonathan Harounoff, author of the forthcoming book Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.
Harounoff, who serves as Israel’s international spokesman to the United Nations in New York, told JNS that the “Islamic Republic of Iran has long used hostage taking of foreign nationals and dual nationals as a tool to advance its dangerous foreign policy agenda.”
Craig and Lindsay Foreman, of the United Kingdom, crossed the Armenian border into Iran on Dec. 30 and the couple reportedly planned to be in Pakistan by Jan. 4. Iran accuses the couple of spying.
Harounoff told JNS that since the 1979 hostage crisis, Iran has taken dozens more foreign nationals captive and has often released them “in lucrative exchanges or deals for Tehran.”
“The Islamic Republic has shown its hostility toward the West not just by arbitrarily detaining civilians and leaving them to languish in Iranian jails but also by muzzling and arresting journalists, with the detainment of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala back in December,” he added.
“Another grim reminder of how the regime turns foreign nationals into bargaining chips,” stated United Against Nuclear Iran, of the detained British couple. “It must be stopped.”
