Ali Rezaian never lost hope that his brother Jason, a Washington Post reporter who was imprisoned in Iran for 545 days until being released this weekend, would come home.
"I knew it would happen at some point," he told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski Monday on "Morning Joe." "The last couple of months have been really rough going through the holidays and what not, but I didn't believe it was going to happen until he got on the airplane, the plane took off and it was out of Iranian airspace."
Ali, who advocated for Jason's release since he was first arrested in July 2014 in Tehran, Iran, said he'd heard rumors for some time about the possibility of Jason's release but told the "Morning Joe" hosts that "by the middle of the week it became apparent."
During the interview, Ali was notified by text message that he could visit his brother, who was being medically evaluated at the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
The Post's Executive Editor Marty Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl also joined the program from Landstuhl to discuss Jason's release.
Baron said that when they spoke to him over the phone the previous day, he "sounded in good spirits."
The Post later tweeted a photo of Jason being reunited with family members in Germany.
Watch the "Morning Joe" clips above.
Also on HuffPost:
