Former prisoner in Iran appointed as senior advisor on Iran affairs
Politico magazine reported, citing two U.S. officials, that Xiyue Wang, a former prisoner in Iran, was recently appointed by the U.S. State Department as a senior advisor on Iran affairs.
According to the Politico report published on the evening of May 20th, these two U.S. officials stated that Xiyue Wang has recently joined the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
The names of these two U.S. officials have not been disclosed because they were not authorized to speak publicly about personnel decisions.
The U.S. State Department and Mr. Wang have not yet responded to this news.
Xiyue Wang, who is of Chinese descent, went to Iran in January 2016 while he was a PhD student at Princeton University to conduct research and was imprisoned in Iran for forty months on charges of espionage, charges he strongly denied.
Mr. Wang was eventually exchanged in December 2019 with Masoud Soleimani, a stem cell researcher who was imprisoned in the U.S. for violating sanctions, and returned to the United States.