Barry Rosen, a survivor of the Iran Hostage Crisis, has started a hunger strike in Vienna where diplomats from Iran and world powers are negotiating to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.

Rosen, who arrived in Vienna on Wednesday, says he will hold his protestfor the freedom of the dozens of hostages held unjustly by the Iranian regime, asking the world to “prioritize their release”. He spend 444 days in captivity in the US embassy in Tehran from November 1878 to January 1980.

Rosen has expressed hope his move can stop other countries from reaching a deal with Iran until the hostages are released.

Another journalist and rights activist Jamshid Barzegar says he’s going to join Rosen’s sit-in in Vienna to draw attention to hostages and all political prisoners held by Tehran.

Barzegar said in a tweet that he is joining the hunger strike also to protest the Islamic Republic's “murder of poet Baktash Abtin,”who died of Covid-19 complications following days of medically induced coma after he was denied timely treatment by officials at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.

The poet and writer was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2019 for his writings.

Since the 1979 revolution the Islamic Republic has arrested and jailed many foreigners on vague and trumped-up charges to use them as bargaining chips against Western countries.