Concessions will embolden U.S., says Iranian MP

TEHRAN, Sept.17(MNA) -- MP Kazem Jalali said that the adoption of a policy of appeasement toward the United States will make White House officials more audacious.

Jalali claimed that Iran’s Judiciary has agreed to release two U.S. citizens, who were arrested in Iran in 2009, on bail.

U.S. citizens Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal were arrested by border guards on July 31, 2009 after illegally entering Iran’s territory from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The three were charged with illegal entry and espionage.

Shourd was released from prison on bail of $500,000 on September 14, 2010 and never returned to Iran. Her case is still open.

Bauer and Fattal have each been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of illegal entry and espionage.

Jalali, who is the rapporteur of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said the Judiciary is studying the request to release the two U.S. citizens on bail.

“Americans have abducted a number of Iranian nationals in other countries based on unfounded and illegal allegations and have transferred them to the U.S. and have imprisoned them, and there has been no news of the fate of some of them,” he stated.

He also said that Iranian nationals imprisoned in the U.S. should be freed in return for the release of Bauer and Fattal.

“It is not always appropriate to take unilateral well-intentioned measures” because the Americans have negatively interpreted our measures on many occasions,” Jalali added.

Making concessions to the United States does not befit a country which has stood against the U.S. avarice for 32 years.