Hostage Diplomacy: How Iran Uses Arrests of Foreigners to Blackmail the West

Experts note that this strategy has its roots in the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. "Iran is using hostages as pawns to extract concessions that it could not otherwise achieve," says Jason Brodsky of the United Against Nuclear Iran think tank. Those concessions include unfreezing assets or releasing Iranian nationals convicted in the West of terrorism or sanctions-busting.