As part of the prisoner exchange, the United States will release six billion dollars of its previously frozen assets to Iran. According to the White House, it is not a ransom payment.
Iran and the United States will carry out a prisoner exchange on Monday, in which each country will release five prisoners. In addition, as part of the agreement, the United States will return six billion dollars of frozen funds to Iran.
This was announced on Monday by the spokesperson of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nasser Canaan. The United States also confirmed the prisoner exchange.
According to media reports, on Monday afternoon Finnish time, the US citizens who were to be released had been able to travel from Tehran to Doha, the capital of Qatar. From Doha, the plane is scheduled to continue to Washington.
A US publication reported on the exchange of prisoners CNN and news agencies AFP and Reuters.
The agreement is brokered by Qatar, as the United States and Iran do not have diplomatic relations. According to CNN’s information, the United States and Iran had been conducting indirect negotiations on the exchange of prisoners for years.
of the United States according to which all five of its citizens had been detained illegally. Three of those released – a businessman accused of espionage Siamak Prayerventure capitalist Mothers Shargi and conservationist Morad Tahbaz – have all been detained for more than five years, Namazi since 2015.
All of them are dual citizens of the United States and Iran. Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, so it treats detainees as Iranian citizens.
The names of the other two released have not been made public at their request.
According to US authorities, Namaz’s mother and Shargi’s wife, who are US citizens, are also traveling on the plane to Qatar. Iran had not let them leave the country.
The Qatari ambassador to Tehran is also traveling on the plane, CNN says.
Last last week, the Iranian news agency Irna published the identities of five Iranians released in exchange by the United States.
According to information from the news agency Reza Sarhangpouria and Kambiz Attar Kashani has been accused of violating US sanctions against Iran. Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabia accused of being an agent of the Iranian government. Mehrdad Moein Ansarilla and Amin Hasanzadehilla alleged links to Iran’s security services.
Of the five released, two will return to Iran, two hope to stay in the United States and one will travel to a third country, Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said.
As part of prisoner exchange agreement for Iran’s use, six billion dollars will be released to Qatari accounts, which it had received from the oil it sold to South Korea under the previous US president Donald Trump’s during the administration. However, South Korea froze the funds after the United States under Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated economic sanctions on the country.
According to AFP information, the release of frozen funds was Iran’s main condition for the success of the prisoner exchange.
The White House has denied that the release of Iranian assets is in practice a ransom payment. President Joe Bidenin the administration has stressed that Iran can only use the funds transferred to Qatar for food, medicine and other humanitarian purchases. The US Treasury Department is supposed to monitor every wire transfer.
Iran, on the other hand, has denied that there were any restrictions on the use of the funds. According to a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Iran can use the funds for any procurement that is not subject to sanctions.
On Monday after the prisoner exchange began, the US announced new sanctions on Iran. The sanctions target Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Iran’s former president Mahmud Ahmadinejadia against.
It is the second package of sanctions ordered by Biden, aimed at punishing organizations or criminals responsible for imprisoning Americans.
The prisoner swap deal “hasn’t changed our relationship with Iran in any way,” a Biden administration official said, according to CNN.
Several citizens of Western countries are still detained in Iran.