Freed American arrives in U.S. from Iran

An American woman who was held in Iran for more than 13 months and accused of espionage said Sunday that she and two men detained with her never spied or committed any crime, calling their arrest "a huge misunderstanding."

Discussing her experience at the most length since her release Tuesday, Sarah Shourd underscored her gratitude at being released but said she felt only "one-third free" because her fianc, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal remain in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.

"This is not the time to celebrate," Shourd, 32, said at a New York news conference Sunday. "The only thing that enabled me to cross the gulf from prison to freedom alone was the knowledge that Shane and Josh wanted with all their hearts for my suffering to end."

Shourd was freed Tuesday in Tehran. Officials in Oman mediated a $500,000 US bail.

Meanwhile, Iranian President MahmoudAhmadinejad arrived in New York to attend the UN General Assembly. He later met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss developments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, as well as efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, the UN spokesperson's office said.

Ahmadinejad called Shourd's release "a huge humanitarian gesture" in an interview on This Week with Christiane Amanpour. He called on the U.S. to release eight Iranians incarcerated after arrests he said were illegal.

Composed but occasionally pausing when her voice wavered with emotion, Shourd thanked Iranians and Ahmadinejad in a carefully scriptedaddress that spoke to the continuing delicacy of her situation.

She didn't take questions or discuss the conditions in which she'd been held, walking away from the podium at a Manhattan hotel hand-in-hand with her mother, Nora, before Fattal's and Bauer's mothers answered reporters' queries.

Bauer, Fattal 'do not deserve to be in prison '

Iran has issued espionage-related indictments against her, Bauer and Fattal; the indictments could bring trials for the two men and proceedings in absentia for Shourd.

But Shourd stressed their innocence in a case that has added to the roster of tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

She said Sunday that the three had been hiking in a popular tourist area near a waterfall in Iraq's Kurdistan region and had no idea the border was nearby.

"If we were indeed near the Iraq-Iran border, that border was entirely unmarked and indistinguishable," she said.

"Shane and Josh do not deserve to be in prison one day longer than I was," she said. "We committed no crime and we are not spies. We in no way intended any harm to the Iranian government or its people and believe a huge misunderstanding led to our detention and prolonged imprisonment."

Nora Shourdhas saidher daughterhad health problems including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells. SarahShourd said Sunday that doctors in Oman, where she went immediately after her release, had determined she was physically well.