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U.S. Navy veteran Michael White has been released from Iran and will be transferred into U.S. custody in Zurich before heading back to the States.

In July 2018, White was arrested in Tehran when he says he was visiting his girlfriend (whom he met online). Eight months later, in March 2019, White, 46, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for insulting Iran’s supreme leader and posting private photographs on social media.

In March of this year, White was released on a medical furlough, but was still ordered to remain in Iran. He was battling an unspecified cancer and also contracted the COVID-19 virus. After nearly four months of negotiations between State Department officials and the Iranian government, White’s full release was secured.

“Michael White’s a pretty tough guy. He’s a cancer survivor. He has now survived two years in Iranian prison where he was beaten in prison. He then contracted in COVID and survived,” said Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special Representative for Iran, who negotiated the agreement to free White. “The Iranian regime has a history of using Americans as political pawns.”

A senior U.S. official told Fox News that as part of the deal to free White, the U.S. agreed to release an Iranian-American doctor, Majid Taheri. Taheri served 16 months for violating American sanctions against Iran and was sentenced Thursday to time served. He’s lived in the U.S. for 33 years and is a medical doctor in Florida, the official said.

So far, White appears to be the only U.S. citizen detained in Iran since President Trump took office. Other Americans still detained include Siamak Namazi, since October 2015; his father Baquer Namazi, since February 2016; and Morad Tahbaz, an American environmentalist.

In late 2019, Princeton graduate student Xiyue Wang was released after three years in prison during a prisoner swap. Wang was exchanged for Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist who had been arrested at Chicago airport and convicted on charges of violating US trade sanctions.

At the time President Trump said Wang had been “taken during the Obama Administration (despite $150 Billion gift), returned during the Trump Administration.”

The president tweeted a more circumspect message regarding White’s release. “I am to happy announce that Navy Veteran, Michael White, who has been detained by Iran for 683 days, is on a Swiss plane that just left Iranian Airspace. We expect him to be home with his family in America very soon. I will never stop working to secure the release of all Americans held hostage overseas! Thank you, Switzerland for your great assistance.”

With so much bad news in our nation right now, it’s nice to have a positive story for a change. No matter what kind of a mess America is in right now, it’s got to be better than a prison in Iran.