Iran Says It Will Free Just 1 of 3 American Hikers

(Sept. 9) -- Iran said today it will release Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers it has been holding for more than a year on allegations of espionage.

Shourd, 31, will be released "very soon," Mohammed Bak Sahraei, a spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations, told AOL News. He declined to give further information.

Earlier today, Iranian authorities sent a text message to reporters summoning them to a Tehran hotel to witness the release, The Associated Press reported.

"Offering congratulations on Eid al-Fitr," the message said, referring to the Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan. "The release of one of the detained Americans will be at Saturday, 9 a.m., at the Estaghlal hotel."

Ali Reza Shiravi, the head of the foreign media office at the Culture Ministry, told the AP that the message was genuine.

It is traditional to show an act of mercy, such as releasing a prisoner, to mark Eid al-Fitr.

As the only woman in the group, Shourd has been held alone in a cell for long periods and is believed to have been ill and depressed.

Shourd and her companions, Shane Bauer, 27, and Josh Fattal, 27, were arrested near the Iraqi border in July 2009. Iran accused them of espionage and has held them ever since without charge. The three maintain that they were hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq and that any crossing of the border was accidental.

The mothers of the three Americans, who traveled to Tehran in May to plead for their release, issued a statement calling for the release of all three, according to the Los Angeles Times. The statement reads:

"We have seen the news reports and are urgently seeking further information. We hope and pray that the reports are true and that this signals the end of all three of our children's long and difficult detention. Shane, Sarah and Josh are all innocent, and we continue to call for their immediate release so that they can return home together and be reunited with our families. -- Cindy Hickey, Nora Shourd and Laura Fattal."

There has been one moment of happiness for Shourd since she was detained. In May she got engaged to fellow detainee Bauer, whom she had been dating before they were taken into custody. Bauer proposed to her with a wedding ring he had fashioned from threads torn from his shirt.

"They are going to get married as soon as they have their freedom," Shourd's mother, Nora, told ABC News.

The fate of the three has become a political issue as the international community negotiates with Iran over sanctions and its nuclear program. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on Iran's government to free the hikers, saying that any charge of espionage was "totally unfounded," according to BBC News.

Tensions between Iran and the international community have grown in recent months, with the U.N. imposing sanctions on military purchases and financial transactions in an effort to deter Iran from producing nuclear fuel. Earlier this week, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency complained that Iran was refusing to cooperate with them.

John Limbert, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and former deputy assistant secretary for Iran in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, said that releasing a single hiker rather than all three was unlikely to improve relations between Iran and the West.

Iran "can't seem to get it right," Limbert, who was held as a hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran for 14 months, told AOL News. Iranian authorities "need to release them all and get this whole problem off their backs."