Journalist Roxana Saberi, recently freed after four months in an Iranian prison, met Wednesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and expressed thanks for the support she received during her confinement.
"When I found that I had this support while I was in prison, I gained a lot of strength and hope and I didn't feel so alone any more," Saberi told reporters as she stood beside Clinton, with her parents seated nearby. Saberi did not take questions.
Clinton said she was relieved that Saberi was set free.
"This was a matter of great concern to our country, certainly to the Obama administration and to me personally — not only as secretary of state but as a mother," Clinton said. "My heart went out to Roxana and to her parents every single day."
The 32-year-old journalist arrived in the United States Friday from Vienna, where she spent a week recuperating after her release from prison in Iran. Saberi was arrested in late January and convicted of spying for the United States in a closed-door trial that her Iranian-born father said lasted only 15 minutes.
She was freed May 11 and reunited with her parents, who had come from Fargo, N.D., to Iran to seek her release. An Iranian appeals court reduced her sentence to a two-year suspended term.
U.S. officials had said the charges against Saberi were baseless and repeatedly demanded her release.
Saberi, who grew up in Fargo and moved to Iran six years ago, has dual citizenship.