The Trump administration intends to request the release of Americans detained in Iran as part of upcoming negotiations aimed at ending the U.S.-Israeli war there, according to people briefed on the plans.
It was not immediately clear how aggressively administration officials may push Iran to release the detained Americans when peace talks open this weekend in Pakistan, these people said, with some expressing concern that if the negotiations prove difficult the ask could be delayed. The ceasefire declared earlier this week already is under immense strain.
Those familiar with the administration’s plans disclosed the impending request, which has not been previously reported, on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomacy.
Advocates for the detained Americans — there are believed to be at least six in Iranian custody — say they are hopeful that although it is likely these U.S. citizens were taken by Iran to be used as leverage in future talks with Washington, they will be freed as a goodwill gesture from Tehran.
Iran’s release of U.S. citizens would be a “simple and no-loss way to have an off-ramp from the current hostilities” for Iran, said Kieran Ramsey of Global Reach, a nonprofit focused on securing the release of American hostages and wrongful detainees.
The White House, which is coordinating the peace talks with Tehran, declined to comment. “These are ongoing discussions and the United States will not negotiate through the press,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said via email.
In a statement denouncing Tehran’s “long and shameful history of unjustly detaining U.S. nationals and other foreign citizens,” the U.S. State Department called on Iran to “immediately release all Americans” detained there.
“Out of respect for their safety and security,” the statement said, “we have nothing further to share.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment.
Throughout his two terms in office, President Donald Trump has pushed foreign governments to release U.S. citizens who he said were being held as hostages, securing the release of dozens.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as White House national security adviser, labeled Iran a “state sponsor of wrongful detention,” a new designation created by the Trump administration, on Feb. 27 — the day before U.S. and Israeli forces began their joint military campaign.
Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are due to travel to Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, for the negotiations with Iran that are expected to start on Saturday.
Experts say they face a difficult task in attempting to find common ground with the Iranians on major unresolved issues, including Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its remaining stockpile of enriched uranium.
Tehran’s closure of the strait has choked off the flow of Middle Eastern oil, causing global energy prices — including the cost of gas in the U.S. — to spike. The uranium is central to a key demand of Trump’s: that Iran never possesses a nuclear bomb.
Advocates for the detained Americans say their hopes have been buoyed by Iran’s recent decision to let two French citizens convicted on espionage charges leave the country. The French government had argued the charges were false and politically motivated. Both departed Tuesday following mediation by Oman and the release of an Iranian woman from house arrest in France.
Some of the Americans held by Iran have been either imprisoned or subject to exit bans from the country. Their situation is believed to have become increasingly perilous over the past five weeks of war, with growing fears among their advocates and loved ones that the chaos in the country could lead to them being harmed.
Two of the U.S. citizens being detained, Kamran Hekmati, 61, and Reza Valizadeh, 49, were being held in Evin Prison, a notorious complex in Tehran that holds thousands of prisoners, including many held on political charges.
Evin was damaged in a deadly Israeli airstrike last year, during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
Lawyers and advocates for those imprisoned in Evin and other Iranian complexes have said an internet blackout there has hampered their ability to make contact with the detained Americans.
Iran has a long history of taking hostages to use as political leverage, often on false charges. Hekmati, who is a Jewish Iranian American who worked in New York as a jeweler, was detained in Iran last year on charges he had visited Israel within the past 10 years. He has disputed the allegation, stating he visited Israel 13 years before he was arrested.
Valizadeh, a dual national who had left Iran in 2009 and worked as a reporter with U.S. government-funded news service Radio Farda, was arrested after returning to the country in 2024 to visit his elderly parents. He was later sentenced to 10 years on charges of “collaboration with a hostile government,” a vague allegation that rights groups say is often used to target dual nationals who criticize the government.
The Trump administration has designated both men wrongfully detained, an official categorization that the U.S. government considers them hostages being held for political purposes. Hekmati was granted the designation by Rubio in March, during the current conflict.
Susannah George contributed to this report.
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