who negotiated the release of the hostages from iran
Iran hostage crisis negotiations Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in the November 1980 presidential election with pressure being added to the negotiations by the President-Elect's talk of not paying "ransom for people who have been kidnapped by barbarians",[9] and a New Years Day threat from Radio Tehran that if the United States did not accept Iran's demands the hostages would be tried as spies and executed.[11] In the final stages of the negotiations in Algiers, the chief Algerian mediator was the Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed Benyahia who interacted primarily with Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher from the U.S. side.[12] Former Algerian ambassador to the U.S. Abdulkarim Ghuraib also participated in the negotiations.[citation needed] Much of the money involved was being held in overseas branches of twelve American banks, so Carter, his cabinet, and staff were constantly on the phone to London, Istanbul, Bonn, and other world capitals to work out the financial details.