it’s not clear if Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif or his colleagues attending the talks have the leverage within Iran to get the Americans freed. | AP Photo Iran's seizure of U.S. businessman rekindles sanctions debate The arrest comes as the nuclear deal enters the highly sensitive implementation phase.

President Barack Obama’s effort to implement the Iran nuclear deal has been dealt another blow -- at least on the public relations front -- with word that the Islamist government in Tehran has imprisoned a fourth American.

The news that Siamak Namazi, a businessman with dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, has been detained came as Secretary of State John Kerry meets with his Iranian counterparts and other world leaders in Vienna to try to end the conflict in Syria. It also comes as the nuclear deal is in the early stages of the highly sensitive implementation phase, with Iran expected to reduce its uranium stockpile and dismantle centrifuges in exchange for relief from nuclear-related sanctions.


Reports of Namazi’s arrest flared anger in Congress, where the Iran deal has numerous critics, many of whom tried unsuccessfully to derail it earlier this year. The arrest is likely to fuel efforts on Capitol Hill to increase human rights and other sanctions on Iran that are not set to be lifted as part of the nuclear deal.

Ed Royce, a Republican from California who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee and opposed the nuclear deal, called Namazi's arrest "the latest show of contempt for America." He called on Kerry to not just raise the prisoners' cases while in Europe but "demand that these Americans come home now."

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois said the nuclear deal had only emboldened Iran, adding: "Iran's threatening behavior will worsen if the administration does not work with Congress to enact stronger measures to push back, including renewal of the expiring Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 and targeted sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guard and against any Iranian official found to have participated in the unjust detainment of American citizens."

Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan, who has long championed the case of one of the prisoners but supported the nuclear deal, also demanded the Americans' release. “Iran has a long history of imprisoning Americans, including my constituent, Amir Hekmati, who continues to be held despite his innocence,” the Democrat said in a statement. “Iran has repeatedly said it seeks to rejoin the global community, yet I simply cannot fathom how this is possible if it continues to hold American political prisoners.”

Namazi, who serves as the head of strategic planning at United Arab Emirates-based Crescent Petroleum Co., was arrested about two weeks ago while visiting relatives in Tehran, according to multiple news reports . Namazi has advocated improved U.S.-Iran relations, and his arrest, reportedly at the behest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence arm, suggested hardline factions in Iran were trying to undermine the nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S. and five other nations.

The Revolutionary Guards may see the potential of increased foreign investment in Iran, one of the outcomes of the nuclear deal that many moderates in the country hope for, as a threat to its own heavy stake in the Iranian economy. More likely, they could be signaling to moderates in Iran that it is still in control of the political scene and can act with impunity.

The armed faction "doesn't want the status quo to change in Iran. Arrests like Namazi's are generally much more about internal political dynamics than they are about foreign relations," said Afshon Ostovar, a Middle East analyst at CNA, a non-profit research organization.

At least three other Americans, all of Iranian descent, are publicly known to be detained in Iran: Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine; Christian pastor Saeed Abedini; and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. Another American, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, is believed missing in Iran but the government there insists it is not holding him. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese Internet freedom advocate who lives in Washington and has U.S. permanent resident status, also has been detained in Iran.

Asked Friday if there are any other Americans in Iranian custody, a State Department official said “for privacy reasons we don’t give out that information.” As far as the Namazi case, department spokesman Mark Toner said: "We're aware of recent reports of the possible arrest in Iran of a U.S. citizen. We're looking into these reports and don't have anything further to provide at this time."

U.S. officials are limited in what they can say and do when Americans, especially those of Iranian descent, are held by government in Tehran, with which Washington hasn't had formal diplomatic relations in nearly 40 years.

Iran doesn’t recognize dual nationality, treating the detainees solely as Iranians, so holding a U.S. passport doesn’t provide legal protection. As the State Department details in its travel warnings , American officials cannot even get access to the detainees through Switzerland, the country that serves as the intermediary for U.S. interests in Iran. Strict privacy laws also severely limit what U.S. officials can say about citizens held overseas and the lack of access to the detainees means U.S. officials cannot meet with them to get privacy waivers signed.

Another complicating factor is that each prisoner’s case is unique (some are accused of spying, others of proselytizing and some of more murky "crimes"), and it’s never quite clear which faction within the Iranian government is responsible for each person’s arrest. That makes trying to obtain a mass release of all the prisoners a challenge.

The U.S. has been in touch with a number of third parties, including the Vatican, to help pressure Iran to free the Americans. It’s a tactic that has worked in the past when other U.S. citizens were imprisoned on seemingly flimsy charges; the government of Oman, for example, helped obtain the release of three American hikers who were held in Iran after being captured in 2009.

The nuclear talks with Iran also served as a rare opportunity for U.S. officials to directly plead with their Iranian counterparts to release the Americans, something Kerry and his deputies repeatedly did on the sidelines of the negotiations. And in the days after the deal was struck, the secretary of state sounded unusually hopeful about the prospects of seeing the men freed.

U.S. officials, including the president, have long insisted that the case of the prisoners must be treated as separate from efforts to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. They have also tried to keep the nuclear deal insulated from other concerns about Iran, including its role in the unrest in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen, a subject of deep concern to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies of the United States.

Even Iran's recent test of a ballistic missile, while alleged to be a violation of a U.N. resolution, is unlikely to stop the Obama administration's support for the nuclear deal.

The U.S. said that Kerry again raised the issue during a bilateral session with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Thursday. But it’s not clear that the Iranian foreign minister or his colleagues attending the talks have the leverage within Iran to get the Americans freed. When up against the powerful Revolutionary Guard or Iranian intelligence agencies, Zarif and even Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are believed to have limited authority.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in theory has the last word on matters of state, but he may see value in keeping the men imprisoned as a way to appease the hardline factions in the government wary of the nuclear deal's long-term effects on the country's theocratic system.