News

NEW YORK — The mothers of three Americans jailed in Iran for 10
months were expected to arrive back on U.S. soil Saturday after
visiting their children but failing to secure their release.

The
Swiss ambassador in Iran told AP Television News there were no
negotiations with Iranian officials to free their children. Washington
and Tehran broke off diplomatic relations following the 1979 Islamic
Revolution, and Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran.

"The
point was that they should see their children. They have seen them
quite a lot over the last two days," Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti said
late Friday in an interview at the Tehran airport after the mothers
left the country. "It was a visit to the children. That was the
purpose."

The Americans — Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane
Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 — have been held in Iran
since July, when they were arrested along the Iraqi border. Iran has
accused them of espionage; their families say that the three were
hiking in Iraq's largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region
and that if they crossed the border, it was accidental.

The
mothers — Nora Shourd, of Oakland, Calif.; Cindy Hickey, of Pine City,
Minn.; and Laura Fattal, of suburban Philadelphia — had hoped to at
least make a face-to-face appeal for their chil... >>>