Former Iran prisoner Nizar Zakka: I was released due to US efforts, not Hezbollah

[TomSea]

Former Iran prisoner Nizar Zakka: I was released due to US efforts, not Hezbollah


There are now 12 to 14 foreign detainees in Iranian prisons from Austria, the UK, France, and the US. (File photo: AP)
Leen Alfaisal, Al Arabiya English Sunday, 29 September 2019

Lebanese IT expert Nizar Zakka, who was detained in Iran for around four years and freed in June 2019, said that his release was a “US deal,” denying Lebanese Hezbollah’s role in the process and deeming it a cover for the Iranian regime to “save face.”

In a statement to Asharq al-Awsat, the permanent US resident pointed out that Iran’s move of handing him over to Hezbollah and the Lebanese President Michel Aoun was intended to “save face” for the regime not to look like it adhered to the US’s demands of freeing him.

“My release was due to American efforts - there were five American detainees in Iranian prisons. Iran released me under American pressure, and it put out the story of Hassan Nasrallah’s efforts and that I was released because I’m Lebanese just so that it doesn’t show that it kneeled to American pressure,” he said.

Read more at: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2019/09/29/Saudi-Arabia-says-it-supports-Egypt-s-counter-terror-efforts-after-Sinai-attack.html