Oman aided hiker's release

In just a few dizzying hours, American Sarah Shourd exchanged a cell in Tehran's Evin Prison for a private jet crossing the Gulf after an apparent diplomatic deal to cover a US$500,000 ($682,350) bail and secure a release that seemed in jeopardy from the start.

Shourd was met by her mother and US diplomats at a royal airfield in the capital of Oman, which US officials say played a critical role in organising the bail payment and assuring it did not violate American economic sanctions on Iran.

Shourd stepped off the private Omani jet and into the arms of her mother in their first embrace since a brief visit in May overseen by Iranian authorities - and her first day of freedom in more than 13 months.

Shourd smiled broadly as they strolled arm-in-arm along the Gulf of Oman.

But the Iranian authorities said her two male companions - Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal - would remain behind bars. A judge extended their "pre-trial detention" yesterday for two months for allegedly crossing the border illegally from Iraq.

Shourd's departure to Oman was first announced by the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which looks after US interests there.

"I want to really offer my thanks to everyone in the world, all of the governments, all of the people, that have been involved, and especially, particularly want to address President Ahmadinejad and all of the Iranian officials, the religious leaders, and thank them for this humanitarian gesture," Shourd told Iran's English-language Press TV before she left the country. In Oman, Shourd also thanked the sultan for his help and said she would turn her efforts to trying to win the release of her companions.

Her mother, Nora, said: "I've hoped and prayed for this moment for 410 days."

President Barack Obama said he was "very pleased" at Shourd's release, and expressed the hope that Bauer and Fattal would be freed as well. But that is unlikely to happen any time soon.

There appeared to be an internal Iranian power struggle ahead of Shourd's release. Disclosing the bail arrangement, Iranian prosecutors said they were acting because Shourd was ill; her mother said after a visit to Tehran in May that the prisoner was suffering from serious medical problems.

But only five days before, the Iranian judiciary snubbed Ahmadinejad by blocking his publicly announced plans to release Shourd as a goodwill gesture on September 10, immediately after the end of Ramadan.

The stated reason was that "legal procedures" had not been completed. More likely, the disagreement reflected the fact that the head of the judiciary is the brother of Ali Larijani, a rival of Ahmadinejad's since losing the 2005 presidential election to him.

All the while, the three hikers have been pawns in the tussle between the US and Iran, who have had no diplomatic relations since the hostage crisis in November 1979, and who are now at odds over Tehran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, its hostility to Israel and its support of radical Islamic groups in the Middle East.

The hikers insist that if they strayed across the poorly marked mountainous border in northern Iraq, it was by accident. Some reports have claimed they were seized by Iranian border guards while on Iraqi soil. Tehran maintains they were on a spying mission, a charge Washington flatly denies.

The hikers' families greeted yesterday's developments with mixed emotions. Despite their joy at Shourd's release, they were "heartbroken that Shane and Josh are still being denied their freedom for no just cause".

- INDEPENDENT, AP