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After two years of detention in Iranian prison, UC Berkeley alumni Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal spoke Sunday for the first time since landing on American soil.Bauer and Fattal, who were released Wednesday on $1 million bail after two years of imprisonment for allegedly crossing the Iran-Iraqborder while hiking, criticized American foreign policy and described their experiences in Iran at a press conference Sunday in New York.“This was never about crossing the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq,” Bauer said. “We were held because of our nationality.”Bauer blamed “32 years of mutual hostility” between the United States and Iran for the way they were treated.Bauer — a freelance photojournalist who was living and working in the Middle East — and Fattal, were held in Iran for 781 days, 337 days longer than the 52 Americans held hostage at the American embassy in 1979. Since then, relations between the two nations have been tenuous at best as they grappled with joint interests within the Middle East including dealing with the Taliban, neutralizing al-Qaida and developing Iran’s energy sector, while also struggling with nuclear diplomacy, according to an analysis by Hossein Mousavian, who served as Iran’s ambassador to Germany from 1990-1997.

Last month, Bauer and Fattal were convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison. The two men each received five years imprisonment for espionage and three additional years for allegedly entering the country illegally. The conviction was widely condemned by world leaders as unnecessarily harsh.

In an open hearing at the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, addressed human rights abuses by Iran. Khalaji said in his address that beyond being one of the largest prisons for journalists in the world, a “much larger number of journalists and political and human rights activists are not allowed to leave (Iran) or lead an ordinary life even after being released on bail.”

“Releasing us is a good gesture, and no positive step should go unnoticed,” Fattal said. “We applaud the Iranian authorities for finally making the right decision regarding our case. But we want to be clear that they do not deserve undue credit for ending what they had no right and no justification to start in the first place.”

Bauer and Fattal were captured along with UC Berkeley alumna and Bauer’s fiancee Sarah Shourd, who, after being imprisoned with them, was released last September on $500,000 bail.

“We vowed to each other that none of us would be free entirely till all of us were free,” Bauer said. “That moment has now thankfully come.”

Bauer said the three of them are now ready to begin their lives and leave prison behind them, “with a new appreciation for the sweet taste of freedom.”

Soumya Karlamangla contributed to this report.