Iran's Hostage Diplomacy: A Decades-Long Strategy to Extract Concessions from Western Nations

The Islamic Republic maintains it has no strategy involving hostage taking.

Iran:

Since the Islamic revolution, Iran has utilized the strategy of detaining Western citizens to gain concessions from adversaries, implementing what observers refer to as "hostage diplomacy" - a tactic that consistently presents challenging dilemmas for Europe and the United States.

This week, Iranian authorities released Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French nationals who had been imprisoned in Tehran for over three years.

The pair had been found guilty of espionage charges, though their families maintained they were simply innocent tourists inadvertently caught in broader geopolitical maneuvering between Tehran and Western nations.

France has characterized these individuals, along with several other recently released French citizens detained in Iran, as "state hostages." Over recent years, dozens of Europeans and Americans have been detained under similar circumstances.

This strategy has deep historical roots, tracing back to November 1979 when Islamist revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran following the revolution, resulting in dozens of Americans being held captive for 444 days until early 1981.

"Hostage diplomacy has been pursued by Iran since the Islamic Republic's establishment in 1979," explained Jason Brodsky, policy director at the US-based think tank United Against Nuclear Iran.

"It employs hostages as bargaining tools to extract concessions that would otherwise be unattainable from the United States and its allies," he further stated.

The Islamic Republic denies implementing any hostage-taking strategy and maintains that all imprisoned foreigners are convicted through proper legal procedures.

'Not The Only Ones'

Such concessions typically include unfreezing financial assets or releasing Iranian nationals convicted abroad on various charges including sanctions violations, assassination plots, or terrorism, Brodsky noted.

"The Iranian regime's practice constitutes state-sponsored hostage taking, also known as hostage diplomacy," added Daren Nair, a security consultant who has advocated for detainees' releases worldwide for years.

"And the Iranian regime are not the only practitioners of this tactic. The Venezuelans, Russians, and Chinese employ it as well," he further observed.

According to Clement Therme, an academic at France's Universite de Montpellier Paul-Valery who closely studies this issue, this policy represents "a pillar of Iranian foreign policy."

"Throughout time, we see cycles of arrests and releases during periods of both rapprochement and tension. The practice continues consistently, though its intensity varies."

The release of Kohler and Paris, who have not yet been permitted to return to France, followed France's decision to release Iranian national Mahdieh Esfandiari on bail, who had been detained in Paris on charges related to spreading terror propaganda.

Tehran explicitly connected these two cases, though the French foreign ministry has declined to comment on any potential agreement.

'Piecemeal Manner'

The release of Western nationals detained under similar circumstances in recent years has often coincided with Iran receiving something in return after meticulous and highly secretive diplomatic negotiations.

The cases of several British citizens, including dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, were connected to a payment owed by the UK to Iran for tanks ordered by the ousted shah that were never delivered. That debt was eventually settled, resulting in the 2022 release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and two other British nationals.

In 2023, five Americans held in Iran, including US-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi who had been imprisoned for eight years, were released through an arrangement that unfroze $6 billion of Iranian assets in South Korea.

British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert's release by Iran in 2020 occurred after Thailand freed three Iranian men jailed for a 2012 bomb plot.

Despite these recent releases, others remain in Iranian custody, including Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges that his family strongly rejects.

British couple Lindsay and Craig Foreman have been detained in Iran since January on espionage charges after Iranian authorities apprehended them during their round-the-world motorcycle journey.

Brodsky suggested that Europe and the United States should consider implementing a comprehensive ban on travel to Iran for their citizens. However, he acknowledged that Washington and its allies have addressed "this problem in a piecemeal manner" for too long.

"The US government should collaborate collectively with its allies to impose a range of multinational penalties on the Islamic Republic immediately when any hostage from these countries is taken by the Iranian regime -- including sanctions and diplomatic isolation," he emphasized.