WASHINGTON - The mothers of Minnesota native Shane Bauer and two other U.S. hikers being held in Iran say they are encouraged by an Iranian government report on Monday suggesting that they might be allowed to visit their children.
But with nearly no contact with their children in the nine months since their arrest on the Iran-Iraq border, the families remain guarded.
"We've gotten no official word that our visas have been processed," said Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn. "We've been here before too many times. I'm personally really careful to listen, and be ready."
Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said on state television Monday that his government had ordered the visas to be issued on humanitarian grounds. The decision comes a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended a nuclear nonproliferation conference in New York, where Hickey tried to meet him.
However uncertain, the Iranians' latest statement is the best news Hickey has received since one brief phone call from Bauer in March.
"We've never gotten this release to state-run TV, so to me, that indicates that there's a more solid possibility that we'll be traveling in the future," Hickey said. "I am more optimistic."
The report on Iran's Press TV is consistent with signals the families have received in recent days from other government contacts. A U.S. State Department official told the Associated Press that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had notified the Swiss Embassy in Tehran -- which represents U.S. interests -- that the visas would be approved. It is not yet clear when the visit would take place.
"We have very reliable diplomatic channels, and we continue to be optimistic," said Laura Fattal, the mother of Joshua Fattal, who is believed to be sharing a prison cell in Tehran with Bauer. The third hiker, Sarah Shourd, has been held separately since their arrest July 31 after apparently straying across the border on a hike in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
