Trump vows to try to free Jewish-American and other US detainee held in Iran
At least two Americans, including 71-year-old Jewish-American Kamran Hekmati of New York, have been designated by the United States as wrongfully detained in Iran, a status that gives Washington access to significant legal and diplomatic tools to seek their release.
In an NBC interview that aired earlier this week, President Donald Trump was asked whether any future deal with Iran would include the release of Americans held there.
“Nobody really has a precise list of who they are, what their condition is or whether they are being held,” Trump said. “If you give me their names, I’ll do my best to bring them home.”
Hekmati, a businessman in Manhattan’s Diamond District, holds dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship. Fourteen years ago, he visited Israel for his son’s bar mitzvah. About a year ago, he traveled to Iran to visit relatives and was arrested. He has since been held in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
Reports say he was arrested at the airport for violating an Iranian law barring citizens from visiting Israel. Born in Iran, Hekmati immigrated to the United States at 13 but entered Iran on an Iranian passport, as required because Tehran does not recognize dual citizenship. He was later sentenced to prison.
The second detainee is Reza Valizadeh, a 50-year-old dual Iranian-American journalist. After leaving Iran in 2009, he returned in March 2024 to visit his elderly parents after receiving assurances from a senior Revolutionary Guards commander that he would not face problems. He was arrested by the Guards in September 2024, held in solitary confinement, interrogated for an extended period, and later sentenced without due process to 10 years for “cooperation with a hostile government,” a vague charge often used against dual nationals and regime critics.
In May 2025, the U.S. secretary of state designated Valizadeh as wrongfully detained.
Concern has grown over both men’s health. Kamran Hekmati’s family told CNN he has cancer. Lawyers for the families told CNN in April they had been assured the U.S. negotiating team was aware of the cases, and another source said the detainees’ names had previously been passed to negotiators.
Valizadeh also sent CBS an audio recording from Evin Prison in which he referred to three other American citizens held there and said all were suffering from “various illnesses” while being denied medical treatment.
