WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump warmly received three Americans back from
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump warmly received three Americans back from North Korean imprisonment early Thursday, calling their release a vindication of his aggressive foreign policy strategy. But many Americans jailed by other repressive regimes around the world appear to have gained little from Trump’s ad-hoc and often confrontational international approach, their advocates say, and in several cases the president may have actually made it harder for them to come home.
After tweets promoting the event and White House emails inviting camera crews, Trump posed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul, whom the North Koreans released to show goodwill ahead of a summit between the U. S. commander in chief and North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.
Elsewhere, American families remained separated from their loved ones.
Consider the Americans trapped in Iran. At least six are known to be there: Robert Levinson, Xiyue Wang, Karan Vafadari, Morad Tahbaz and father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. Some U. S. green card holders are also detained.
Trump’s decision this week to withdraw the U. S. from a groundbreaking international agreement over Iran’s nuclear program dramatically escalated tensions between the two countries and torpedoed the main dialogue between American and Iranian officials.
Supporters of the jailed U. S. citizens were already worried that the administration did not focus on their plight as it frequently issued laundry lists of various other troubling Iranian actions and did not impose punishments specifically over the detentions.
