The president Donald Trump announced this Wednesday that Iran allowed the departure from the country of an American citizen who had been detained since December 2024, which he described as a gesture of goodwill from the Iranian government amid an ongoing armed conflict between the two nations.
Trump made the announcement on his platform Truth Social without initially identifying the individual. It was his lawyer, human rights attorney Jared Genser, who identified her as Dena Karari, an Iranian-American.
"Iran has allowed a U.S. citizen, wrongfully detained in December 2024 during the presidency of Joe Biden, to leave the country. She is now safe outside of Iran and in good health. The United States appreciates this gesture of goodwill from Iran!" wrote Trump.
Karari was never physically imprisoned, but she was subjected to what Genser described as a "coercive exit prohibition" that prevented her from leaving Iranian territory for more than seven months.
She was arrested, accused of charges that her lawyer described as "false," and released on bail, though with the restriction of not being able to leave the country.
According to Genser, Karari directed a nonprofit organization called Children of Mehr Foundation, dedicated to assisting children in poverty in Iran with private donations and a license from the U.S. financial regulator known as OFAC.
Iranian authorities interrogated her dozens of times during her detention. "She suffered enormous physical and psychological hardships," Genser stated to CNN.
The lawyer confirmed that Karari was traveling back to the United States and requested time for her to recover. "I hope Dena has more to say in the coming days, but for now she needs to rest and recuperate," he noted.
The release occurred on the same day that the U.S. Central Command was carrying out a new wave of bombings against Iranian facilities on direct orders from Trump, as part of the armed conflict that began on February 28, 2026, with Operation Epic Fury.
The context makes the gesture even more notable: Iran and the U.S. are engaged in active military hostilities, and the peace agreement reached in June 2026 between both parties did not include the release of the detained U.S. citizens.
Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, which makes nationals with dual citizenship, like Karari, especially vulnerable targets for Iranian authorities.
At the time of Karari's release, the U.S. government was tracking at least six American citizens detained in Iran, two of whom were officially designated as "wrongfully detained," according to a source quoted by CNN.
Genser, known in diplomatic circles as "the extractor," seized the announcement to demand more: "We urge Iran to drop all remaining charges against those who worked locally in support of the Children of Mehr Foundation, who are innocent and have committed no crime. I personally call on Iran to release all unjustly imprisoned Americans, who are subjected to coercive exit bans, as well as all Iranian political prisoners."
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