LONDON: The International Observatory for Human Rights has released a documentary highlighting Iran’s use of hostage-taking in order to gain leverage over its adversaries.
The 30-minute documentary, titled “Iran’s high stakes game of hostage diplomacy,” draws upon testimonies from past victims and their families, who reveal what happened behind closed doors and prison bars.
Included in the documentary are Finnish-Iranian Ana Diamond, Chinese-American Xiyue Wang and Lebanese Nizar Zakka — a permanent US resident. They describe how they were suddenly detained in Iran and turned into bargaining chips.
“Since 2015, the Iranian regime had detained at least 30 individuals with foreign ties to use as leverage,” the documentary’s description read.
“Today they (Zakka, Diamond and Wang) are able to share what happened to them, whereas 14 others unjustly remain behind bars.”
Among those still detained are British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Iranian-Americans Baquer and Siamak Namazi, and Iranian-American-Briton Morad Tahbaz.
Watch the full documentary here:
Iran's high stakes game of hostage diplomacy from Valerie Peay on Vimeo.
