Moms of jailed American hikers return from Iran

? The mothers of three Americans jailed in Iran returned to the United States on Saturday, pained to leave their children behind yet heartened to find they’re being treated well and are “in reasonable health.”

At a brief news conference at John F. Kennedy International Airport shortly after they returned to New York, Cindy Hickey thanked the Iranians for allowing the women to see the three and said they were disappointed they could not return with their children.

“The pain is almost more than we can bear,” Hickey said, but “we will forever savor the precious moments we were able to spend with our children.”

She said the mothers “hope and pray that the Iranian authorities will now find it in their hearts to resolve our children’s case and release them without further delay.”

Hickey and Nora Shourd left the airport terminal holding hands in support of each other, while the third woman, Laura Fattal, walked arm-in-arm with her son.

The women had a “very emotional goodbye” to the children they had to leave behind in Tehran, the brother of one captive said.

“They’re managing to cope with an extremely difficult situation,” said Alex Fattal, brother of Josh Fattal.

The detained Americans — Sarah Shourd, 31; her boyfriend, Shane Bauer, 27; and their friend Josh Fattal, 27 — have been held in Iran since July, when they were arrested along the Iraqi border. Iran has accused them of espionage; their families say that the three were hiking in Iraq’s largely peaceful mountainous northern Kurdish region and that if they crossed the border, it was accidental.

The mothers — Shourd, of Oakland, Calif.; Hickey, of Pine City, Minn.; and Fattal, of suburban Philadelphia — returned from Dubai Saturday afternoon, but provided few details of their trip.

The women told family members they had spent a total of about 10 hours with their children over two days in Iran but failed to secure their release, said Alex Fattal, who is on leave from a doctoral program in anthropology at Harvard University so he can help gain the Americans’ release.

“They have mixed feelings,” he said. Friday, the day they left Tehran, “was a tremendously emotional day for them and for us; it was very difficult for them to leave, an extremely difficult departure after a very emotional goodbye.”

The mothers had hoped to at least make a face-to-face appeal for their children’s release to Iranian leaders.

On Saturday, they said that at least the three young people “are being well-treated and we’re extremely relieved to see for ourselves that they’re in reasonable health,” said Nora Shourd. However, “the emotional strain on them and the loneliness is very difficult and they told us they just cannot understand why they’re still in jail.”