The ongoing negotiations between the United States and Iran in Pakistan are a stark reminder of the Iran regime’s cruelty and hatred toward Americans. Unfortunately, I know this better than most.
In March 2007, Iran kidnapped my husband Robert Levinson, an American patriot who served his country faithfully for three decades. They denied holding him, lied for years, and taunted my seven children and me with a hostage video and photos of him in an orange jumpsuit. In President Trump’s first term, and thanks largely to his powerful leadership, we learned that he died in Iran’s custody.
The FBI has identified five regime officials involved in Bob’s abduction and subsequent death. One of them, Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) official Mohammad Baseri, was killed in the opening wave of American and Israeli airstrikes.
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Among the Iranian delegation negotiating in Islamabad was Reza Amiri Moghadam, the country’s ambassador to Pakistan. That name might not mean anything to most Americans, but it means terrible things to my family. Moghadam is one of the former MOIS officials wanted by the FBI and sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for his role in my husband’s abduction, detention, and death.
This monster was in the same room as our Vice President, a grave insult to my family and to the United States of America.
My husband’s remains have never been returned. Bob Levinson gave his life in service to our great country. For nearly two decades, he was left behind in every bad deal with Iran.
Secretary of State Rubio said on the 19th anniversary of Bob’s kidnapping that it is “a reminder of the nature of the regime we’re dealing with in Tehran.” Moghadam’s presence proves him right.
President Obama left my husband alive in Iranian custody for eight years. When the previous deal with Iran, the JCPOA, was implemented in January 2016, President Obama had maximum leverage over Tehran. Instead of demanding answers about Bob, he sent Iran $1.7 billion in cash on pallets and got nothing for our family. President Biden left resolution of my husband’s case entirely out of his prisoner exchange, sending Iran another $6 billion. Both presidents had the leverage. Both had the opportunity. Neither got it done. Both times, Iran got paid and the man who served his country was forgotten.
President Trump is a fundamentally different kind of leader. From his first term, he did what every other president talked about but never had the spine to do.
In his second term, President Trump has only escalated. He designated Iran as the first State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention. His military strikes have degraded Iran’s nuclear program, eliminated Ayatollah Khamenei, and effectively changed the regime’s leadership. Just days ago, a former Biden official admitted they discussed hitting Iran but chose not to. That tells you everything about the difference. President Trump acts. He has been consistent for forty years that this regime only understands strength.
If Bob had been kidnapped under President Trump, I have no doubt he would have done everything in his power to bring him home alive. This is a president who believes in no man left behind and means it as the world saw with the downed pilot rescue just weeks ago.
I am not asking for much, just what any wife and mother would want: justice. I need to know what happened to my husband. I want his remains returned so he can be laid to rest with the dignity he earned. I want our seven children to finally have closure. And I want all those responsible held accountable.
If the Iranian regime will never come forward with the truth of the crimes against humanity they committed against my husband, then it should be made to feel tangible consequences in the realm it cares about most: the pocketbook.
Six billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets are still sitting in Qatari banks, and President Trump has the legal authority and executive tools to seize a portion of those funds and direct them to satisfy federal court judgments against Iran. American victims of Iran’s hostage-taking hold roughly $2 billion in outstanding judgments, a fraction of the frozen assets.
The President could satisfy every single one and Iran would still have billions left. More than a year ago, he signed NSPM-2 directing senior officials to “pursue all available means to collect on court-ordered judgments against Iran and state sponsors of terrorism.” The policy is in place. What is needed is action.
Every day Iran refuses to negotiate in good faith, that pile of money they desperately want gets smaller because the President could turn it over to the Americans whose lives the regime has destroyed.
Obama paid Iran. Biden paid Iran. President Trump can be the first American leader in history to make Iran pay. Now is the time to follow through.
Iran needs to finally pay for what they did to Bob Levinson.
