They'll be picked up and accused of espionage or some other trumped-up charge, thrown in Evin Prison or some other hellhole, and left to rot until an American president relents and pays the ransom being demanded.

Even that might not be enough, as we discovered with the five Americans released earlier in the week when the factionalized Iranian government almost backed out of the deal as they demanded still more concessions from the Biden administration.

"They're always just trying to throw sand in the gears, always trying to negotiate and try to get more and more," an anonymous official told CNN. "We've taken a very firm line and a very principled position, so we stood firm."

You wouldn't have paid a ransom if you had any principles at all, you jackal.

The Iranians wanted to release only three of the hostages, presumably retaining the others to hold up Biden for a couple of billion more. Again, this is business as usual when one faction or another makes another demand and won't sign off on a deal until it's met. In this case, it appears some Iranian with more clout ordered the release anyway.

The Iranians even threatened not to include all five of the Americans in the release unless the US did more, the officials told CNN.

But having come this far, the Americans made clear they were not going home without all five – it was a non-negotiable to the US and the Iranians relented.

"We held our line and the Iranians backed down and we made it work," a senior State Department official said.

The US officials suggested the negotiators didn't see these Iranian attempts as a significant threat that could sink the deal, but rather as part of a typical strategy by Tehran.