Detention of Rezaian’s family nearly unravelled Iran prisoner swap

Peter Baker of the New York Times reports:

"The Iranian authorities held the wife and mother of the journalist Jason Rezaian without telephones for hours in a separate room at a Tehran airport Sunday before finally agreeing under U.S. pressure to let them leave along with prisoners released in an exchange with the United States.

"The last-minute conflict came close to unravelling a prisoner swap that was negotiated during 14 months of secret talks and that had already been announced to the world. In the end, Mr. Rezaian’s wife and mother were permitted to fly with him to Europe later Sunday, but the episode underscored that parts of Iran’s factionalized system still strongly resist any rapprochement with the United States."

The entire hair-raising epic