Iran on Tuesday released a Lebanese citizen charged with spying for the United States, officials confirmed.
The man, Nizar Zakka, an information technology expert with American permanent residency, was imprisoned in Iran for more than four years. But on Monday, Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported that he would be released.
Lebanon’s internal security agency on Tuesday tweeted an image of Mr. Zakka aboard a plane bound for Beiruit, with the organization’s chief.
المدير العام للأمن العام #اللواء_عباس_ابراهيم في الطريق من طهران الى لبنان يرافقه نزار زكا بعد إطلاق سراحه من قبل السلطات الإيرانية، على أن يتوجها عند الوصول الى قصر بعبدا. pic.twitter.com/wzYaGMdBn0
— الأمن العام اللبناني (@DGSG_Security) June 11, 2019
Fars, the Iranian news agency, said Mr. Zakka was released out of respect for Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese military and political group that the United States considers a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is deeply intertwined with Iran, and is part of Lebanon’s coalition government.
Mr. Zakka was “freed and extradited, thanks to Nasrallah’s mediation and the respect Tehran pays to him,” the news agency said.
Abbas Ibrahim, the head of Lebanon’s internal security agency, went to Tehran to meet with Mr. Zakka on Monday, his office said in a statement.
