© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The flags of the US and Iran are seen on this file photograph taken on September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Picture
Paris Hafezi
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran and the US have reached an settlement on a prisoner alternate, Iranian International Minister Hossein Amirabdallahian informed state tv on Sunday, including that he hoped the alternate would happen quickly.
“Concerning the difficulty of prisoner alternate between Iran and the US, we now have reached an settlement in latest days, and if every little thing goes effectively from the US aspect, I believe we’ll see a prisoner alternate within the close to future,” Amirabdallahian mentioned.
“Every thing is prepared from our aspect, and the US is now engaged within the last technical settlement.”
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to Reuters’ request for touch upon Amirabdalakhian’s remarks.
One in every of a number of Individuals held in Iran is Siamak Namazi, a businessman with twin US-Iranian citizenship who was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2016 for espionage and cooperation with the US authorities.
Emad Sharghi, an Iranian-American businessman first arrested in 2018 whereas working for a expertise funding firm, can also be in jail in Iran, as is Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who additionally holds British citizenship.
Iranian sources informed Reuters that the 2 international locations within the area participated in a collection of oblique talks between Tehran and Washington on the discharge of prisoners.
Over time, Tehran has sought the discharge of greater than a dozen Iranians within the U.S., together with seven Iranian-American twin residents, two Iranians with everlasting U.S. residency, and 4 Iranian residents with out authorized standing within the U.S.
Human rights activists have accused the Islamic Republic, which holds dozens of Iranian twin nationals and foreigners, of arresting them as a way to extract concessions from different international locations. Iran has denied the accusations.
Final week, some Iranian media reported that Iran reached a prisoner swap deal in alternate for the discharge of $7 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds beneath US sanctions on South Korea.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump deserted the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and 6 nations and reimposed sanctions that had battered the Islamic Republic’s economic system.
The settlement imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear actions in alternate for the lifting of worldwide sanctions. In response to Washington’s sanctions, Tehran step by step violated the settlement’s limits on its nuclear program.
Oblique talks between Tehran and the administration of President Joe Biden on renewing the settlement have stalled since September. The settlement imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear actions in alternate for the lifting of worldwide sanctions.
