At Start of Hunger Strike, American-Iranian Jailed in Iran Calls on Biden To Help

An Iranian-American citizen held in jail in Iran has started a week-long hunger strike to draw attention to US hostages being held in Iran. Siamak Namazi in an open letter to US President Joe Biden called on the American leader to help him. “All I want, sir, is one minute of your days’ time for the next seven days devoted to thinking about the tribulations of the US hostages in Iran,” Namazi wrote. “Only the president of the United States has the power to bring us home, should he set his mind to do so.” Namazi and his father Baquer, a former UNICEF official, were convicted in Iran of “collaboration with a hostile government” in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the United States and the United Nations calling them trumped-up charges. Baquer Namazi’s sentence was commuted to time served after he received a medical furlough in 2018. “My captors enjoy taunting me about that fact by saying things like, ‘How can your beloved America be so heartless? Not one but two US presidents freed others but left you behind!’” Namazi wrote in his letter.