In a tweet on Saturday President Donald Trump thanked Iran for releasing American citizen Xiyue Wang and said making a deal with Iran is possible.
In his tweet the U.S. President said: "Taken during the Obama Administration (despite $150 Billion gift), returned during the Trump Administration. Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation. See, we can make a deal together!"
In another tweet Trump said the United States will not rest until every American wrongfully detained in Iran and around the world was brought back home to their loved ones.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also thanked the Swiss government in a tweet for facilitating Wang's return and said the U.S. is "pleased the Iranian government has been constructive in this matter."
Xiyue Wang, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Princeton University had gone to Iran in August 2016. He was arrested by Iranian security forces on charges of espionage while conducting research on Iranian history for alledgely seeking access to confidential areas of Tehran libraries and recording 4,500 pages of digital documents.
Wang's release, negotiated by Swiss diplomats in Tehran, was in exchange for the release of an Iranian scientist, Massoud Soleimani, a stem cell expert, who was arrested at a Chicago airport last year on trying to export biological material to Iran in violation of the U.S. sanctions.
Both men were flown to Zurich where the exchange took place. Iran's foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif travelled to Zurich himself to take Soleimani back to Iran.
