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According to Reuters, the number of dual nationalities arrested in Iran has increased since the signing of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Currently, there are some 30 dual nationalities detained in Iran.

As history will prove, Iran’s strategy to gain both funds and arms by keeping dual nationalities hostage is nothing new. It started in 1979 when a group of 52 American embassy employees were held hostage for 444 days just after the Islamic revolution began. The result of which was the “Algiers Accord”, where $7.9 billion of Iranian assets were unfrozen in addition to immunity from future lawsuits by United States.

The second most notable hostage crisis was when Hezbollah, the militants founded and funded by Iran in south Lebanon, kidnapped Americans and other foreign nationalities during the Lebanese civil war.

Once again, the American administration under Reagan gave in to Iranian demands and the result became known as the Iran-Contra affair, in which during secret and illegal negotiations weapons were shipped to Iran in the height of Iran-Iraq war.

More recently, in January of 2016 under Obama $400 million were sent to Iran to release four American hostages - money that Obama administration refused to call a “ransom” but rather“settlement of a longstanding claim at the US-Iran Claims Tribunal at The Hague,” according to former State Department spokesman John Kirby.

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