What Will, and Won’t, Help Free Jason Rezaian From Prison in Iran

Sens. Marco Rubio and Marc Kirk have asked the Obama administration to tie any final nuclear deal with Iran to the release of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and other Americans held prisoner by the regime. If taken seriously, however, this proposal is more likely to scuttle an agreement than to result in the release of jailed Iranian-Americans.

President Hasan Rouhani and Iran’s lead negotiator, Foreign MinisterJavad Zarif, may well want Jason Rezaian to be released–and to see one more issue plaguing U.S.-Iranian relations eliminated. But they have no power over this decision. The Rouhani government does not control Iran’s judiciary or Intelligence Ministry. These organizations, which oversee those holding and charging Mr. Rezaian and other American prisoners, answer to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He appointed the hard-line head of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, and Iran’s prosecutor-seneral, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i.

Tying the nuclear negotiations—and success now seems within reach—to prisoner release will only play into the hands of Iran’s hard-liners.

The Intelligence Ministry, backed by a pliant judiciary, could be holding Mr. Rezaian for a number of reasons. Some Iranian officials are obsessed with “proving” that the U.S. government is using journalists, intellectuals, and analysts to plot the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Some core hard-liners in these organizations think that Iran has already given away too much in the nuclear negotiations and would not mind undermining the accord. They wish to prevent what are sure to follow a nuclear agreement between Iran and the international community: expanded relations with the U.S.; increased American and European investment in Iran; and an opening of Iran’s closed society. Some men would welcome conditions that would wreck a prospective deal.

Those who want to help Jason Rezaian and other Americans held in Iran should focus on the one person who can get them released. Ayatollah Khamenei bristles at ultimatums and any suggestion that he is giving way to threat. He will not take kindly to “conditions” for a nuclear agreement, such as those the the senators have proposed. But he also is not beyond persuasion. If he is convinced, discreetly, that allowing the judiciary and security agencies to continue unjustly holding Mr. Rezaian and others is harmful to Iran’s international standing, he may be moved to act.

After I was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in Evin Prison during a visit to Iran in 2007, Lee Hamilton, then the director of the Wilson Center (where I continue to work), reached out quietly and through helpful intermediaries to Iran’s leader. This effort proved effective. Adverse publicity was a factor too. Continuing to hold me damaged Iran’s reputation. Today, intense media focus on the unfair incarceration of Jason Rezaian and others will help them too. There is a lesson here for those who want to help Jason.

Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.

This article was originally written in the Wall Street Journal.