White House: Charges Against “Washington Post” Reporter ‘Absurd’
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Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Monday said that, if true, the charges against Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian in Iran are “absurd” and should be “immediately dismissed.”
“Jason should be freed immediately, so that he can return home to his family,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing, noting that “we’re going to wait until we see some more official announcement from Iranian judicial authorities before we comment further on his case.”
Rezaian, a U.S. citizen born in California, has been under arrest in Iran for nine months. A statement issued by his lawyer in Tehran and provided to the Post on Monday says he has been charged with four crimes, including espionage.
“More generally, let me repeat something that I said before, which is that the ongoing effort to try to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon through diplomacy will not, if it succeeds, resolve the wide range of other concerns we have about Iranian behavior,” Earnest added.
Asked by ABC News’ Chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl why the administration doesn’t make Rezaian’s release a condition of a final nuclear deal with Iran, Earnest explained: “The effort to build the international community’s strong support for a diplomatic resolution, or a diplomatic agreement that would shut down every pathway that Iran has to a nuclear weapon is extraordinarily complicated.”
“That’s why you continue to see regular, consistent and pretty forceful statements from the United States that these Americans should be released. While at the same time, we are working with our P-5-plus-1 partners and other countries around the world to compel Iran to sign onto the dotted line and agree to shut down every pathway they have to a nuclear weapon,” he said.
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