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Iran says deal reached with US for prisoner swap By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: USA and Iranian flags are seen on this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photograph

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran and the US have reached an settlement to trade prisoners, Iranian International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian instructed state TV on Sunday, including that he hoped the trade would happen quickly.

“Concerning the problem of prisoner swaps between Iran and the U.S. we’ve reached an settlement within the current days and if every little thing goes nicely on the U.S. facet, I believe we’ll witness a prisoner trade in a brief interval,” Amirabdollahian stated.

“On our half every little thing is prepared, whereas the U.S. is presently engaged on the ultimate technical coordination.” 

The White Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by Reuters on Amirabdollahian’s remarks. 

Certainly one of a number of Individuals held in Iran is Siamak Namazi, a businessman with twin U.S.-Iranian citizenship, who was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in jail for spying and cooperating with the U.S. authorities.

Emad Sharghi, an Iranian-American businessman was first arrested in 2018 when he was working for a tech funding firm, can also be jailed in Iran, as is Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who additionally holds British citizenship.

Iranian sources instructed Reuters that two regional international locations have been concerned within the sequence of oblique talks between Tehran and Washington for the discharge of prisoners.

For years, Tehran has sought the discharge of greater than a dozen Iranians in the US, together with seven Iranian-American twin nationals, two Iranians with everlasting U.S. residency and 4 Iranian residents with no authorized standing in the US.

The Islamic Republic, which is holding dozens of Iranian twin nationals and foreigners, has been accused by rights activists of arresting them to attempt to extract concessions from different international locations. Iran has dismissed the cost.

Some Iranian media reported final week that Iran had reached a prisoner swap deal in trade for the discharge of $7 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds beneath U.S. sanctions in South Korea.

In 2018, then-U.S. president Donald Trump ditched a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and 6 powers and reimposed sanctions which have crippled the Islamic Republic’s financial system.

The deal imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear actions in trade for lifting worldwide sanctions. In response to Washington’s sanctions, Tehran has regularly violated curbs of the pact on its nuclear programme.

Oblique talks between Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration on reviving the settlement have stalled since September. The deal imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear actions in trade for lifting worldwide sanctions.


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