Updated on: March 25, 2026 / 10:34 PM EDT / CBS News
Former Iran detainee Siamak Namazi said he is deeply concerned for the Americans believed to be detained in Iranian prisons as the U.S.-Iran conflict escalates. “They are the easiest-to-grab punching bag right now in the hands of that rogue regime,” he said on a Face the Nation panel with Margaret Brennan.
“I think this is a dangerous time,” Namazi added. “For a hostage or wrongfully detained citizen abroad, their biggest fear is to be forgotten, and this is a very dangerous time for them, with all that’s going on in Washington’s mind.”
Namazi spent nearly eight years in Evin prison after his 2015 arrest and is the longest-held American released from Iran; the State Department found he had been wrongfully detained. Emad Shargi, who was imprisoned in Iran for five years, recalled being in Evin during the October 2022 protests that erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while in police custody after being arrested over an alleged hijab violation. Shargi described Evin as an “amplifier” for unrest: “When there’s a ripple outside in the society, there’s a tidal wave inside.” He recounted a fire at the prison and an influx of protest-related detainees.
Namazi and Shargi were among five U.S. citizens freed in 2023 in a complex diplomatic deal between Iran and the Biden administration that involved transferring $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian oil assets and releasing five Iranians facing U.S. charges. At the time, a senior U.S. official emphasized the deal did not alter the adversarial U.S.-Iran relationship.
Shargi said he believed President Trump and his team would prioritize knowing Americans were held in Evin amid a war. “I think it’s important that he hears that there are innocent Americans being held like we were — as political pawns,” he said. Namazi echoed that if President Trump knew the detainees’ cases, they would become priorities. “I personally think that there will be a time soon because all wars end with some form of diplomacy,” Namazi said, urging that any negotiations include efforts to bring detainees home.
There are at least four Americans believed to be detained in Iran. Two — Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati — have been designated by the U.S. government as “wrongfully detained” and are thought to be held in Evin. Namazi and Shargi appeared on the panel with Shargi’s sister Neda Sharghi, former U.S. hostage negotiator Roger Carstens, and Margaret Brennan, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned a “largest strike package yet” was coming in Iran.
Neda Sharghi said Americans detained abroad often become entangled in larger political issues and urged the government to separate detainee cases from broader conflicts and pursue creative solutions, as was done for Emad and Siamak. Carstens, who served as U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs under both the Trump and Biden administrations, said he did not know whether the detained Americans had been raised in recent talks led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential adviser Jared Kushner. During previous negotiations, Carstens said officials were careful to keep prisoner talks linked but not tightly bound to nuclear negotiations so one process could proceed if the other faltered.
Carstens acknowledged the Iranian regime closely ties detainee cases to nuclear diplomacy but said the U.S. sought flexibility in how those issues were connected. “We were very practical about how close those issues got together, and we wanted the flexibility to separate them if we wanted to,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to correct two quotes by Shargi and Namazi that were misattributed.