American hiker freed by Iran: “We’re so happy”

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, two Americans freed by Iran on Wednesday after being held for two years, gave brief statements late Wednesday after arriving in Oman, CNN reports.

"We're so happy we are free and so relieved we are free," Fattal said. "Our deepest gratitude goes toward his majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman for obtaining our release. We're sincerely grateful for the government of Oman for hosting us and our families."

"Two years in prison is too long and we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran," Bauer said.

Video showed the two men joyously embracing family after getting out of an airplane. Bauer's fiancee, Sarah Shourd, who was detained with the two men in Iran in 2009 but released last year for medical reasons, was among those waiting for the men outside the plane.

Bauer and Fattal's families also released a statement, according to CNN:

Today can only be described as the best day of our lives. We have waited for nearly 26 months for this moment and the joy and relief we feel at Shane and Josh's long-awaited freedom knows no bounds.

We now all want nothing more than to wrap Shane and Josh in our arms, catch up on two lost years and make a new beginning, for them and for all of us.

Reuters reports that President Barack Obama told reporters he was "thrilled" that Iran had released the men.

"It was the right thing to do. They shouldn't have been held in the first place," Obama said, while at the United Nations in New York City.

Bauer, Fattal and Shourd were arrested in 2009. They said they were hiking and had unintentionally crossed the border into Iran. Last month, Bauer and Fattal were convicted of illegally entering Iran and spying, and sentenced to eight years in prison.

A lawyer for the two men told CNN that the $1 million bail demanded by the Iranian government had been paid by the Omani government.