Title: Iran–United States relations
Content: being convicted of spying for the United States. She was accused of possessing a classified document but denied the charge. After spending four months in prison, she was released in May, and the charge was dropped. On 9 July 2009, the United States released five Iranian diplomats (Mohsen Bagheri, Mahmoud Farhadi, Majid Ghaemi, Majid Dagheri and Abbas Jami), who had been held since January 2007. Some analysts believe this was a part of hostage exchange deal between the countries. The US State Department said the release was not part of a deal with Iran but was necessary under an American-Iraqi

Title: Iran–United States relations
Content: former monarch was an American puppet, and this led to the storming of the American embassy by radical students allied with the Khomeini faction. On 4 November 1979, the revolutionary group Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, angered that the recently deposed Shah had been allowed into the United States, occupied the American embassy in Tehran and took American diplomats hostage. The 52 American diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. In Iran, the incident was seen by many as a blow against American influence in Iran and the liberal-moderate interim government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, who opposed

Title: Iran hostage crisis
Content: at diplomatic missions everywhere." On the morning of February 14, 1979 – the same day that the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was kidnapped and fatally shot by Muslim extremists in Kabul – the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took a Marine named Kenneth Kraus hostage. Ambassador William Sullivan surrendered the embassy to save lives, and with the assistance of Iranian Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi, returned the embassy to U.S. hands within three hours. Kraus was injured in the attack, kidnapped by the militants, tortured, tried, and convicted of murder. He

Title: John Sheardown
Content: later worked for the Canadian immigration service, beginning around 1962, then in the foreign service for 27 years, retiring in 1989. On November 4, 1979, the Iran hostage crisis began; 52 American diplomats and civilians were taken hostage by Iranians in Tehran. At the time, Sheardown was the chief immigration officer, the second-ranking official at the Canadian Embassy there. A group of five Americans had escaped capture. After hiding for six days, one of them, Robert Anders, telephoned Sheardown, a friend he had played tennis with, for help. Sheardown immediately contacted his superior, Ambassador Ken Taylor, who apprised the Canadian

Title: 2013 Iranian diplomat kidnapping
Content: about the operation. Mahmoud Alavi, intelligence minister of Iran, declared that the rescue operation occurred with the fewest casualties. Also, Alavi said: "Tehran had refused the conditions set by the terrorists" for the diplomat's release." On March 5, 2015, he moved to Mehrabad international airport and returned to his family, where he was greeted by his family and some Iranian officials. 2013 Iranian diplomat kidnapping Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an administrative staff member of the Iranian Embassy in Sana'a, Yemen, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda group at the Yemeni capital on 21 July 2013. He was held hostage for two years and

Question: Who was the senior US diplomat held in the US Embassy in Tehran?
Answer: Bruce Laingen