Iran Confirms Trade Claims With US
Chief negotiator Ali Bakiri, in his post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding the prisoner swap with the US, said: “The process of releasing billions of dollars in Iranian assets , which several years, has begun”. he made a statement.
Noting that the two countries will mutually release the detainees, Bakiri said: “Iran has received the necessary guarantee for the United States to fulfill its obligations. This includes the release of large numbers of Iranians illegally detained in the United States.” he gave the information.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, in a written statement on the matter, stated that they had received confirmation that Iran had released 5 Americans from prison and placed them under house arrest, which it claimed to have arrested. unfairly.
In US and Iranian media news, information was shared that the two countries would exchange prisoners in exchange for the release of Iran’s $6 billion frozen in South Korea.
Iran’s semi-official Tesnim news agency also wrote that 4 US citizens in Iran would be released, and in exchange, at least 4 Iranian citizens detained in the US would be released and returned to their countries.
HE HAS BEEN ARRESTED ON AN “ESPIONAGE” CLAIM
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen who was said to have been detained in 2015 during a business trip to Iran, has been charged with “connections with a hostile state.”
Imad Şarki, who was also registered as a businessman and environmentalist, was arrested in 2018.
The US State Department argues that Siamak Namazi, Imad Sharki and Murad Tahbaz were wrongfully arrested.
THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF IRAN MADE A STATEMENT
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Emir Abdullahiyan said on August 8 that they were willing to exchange prisoners with the United States without preconditions.
Stating that they see the prisoner exchange as a “human problem”, Abdullahiyan said: “The number is not important, but messages (between Iran and the US) have been exchanged for months through Oman and Qatar. We did not observe “No prerequisites in this regard. We announced to the intermediary parties that we would exchange prisoners within the agreed framework,” he said.
IN BOTH COUNTRIES THERE ARE PEOPLE IN PRISON
In the US, some Iranian citizens are accused of violating sanctions and 5 US citizens are detained in Iran on espionage charges.
There had previously been a prisoner exchange between the two countries, and more recently, a former US soldier imprisoned in Iran and an Iranian scientist imprisoned in the US were released simultaneously in June 2020.
In October 2020, Namazi’s father, 85-year-old Iranian-American citizen Muhammed Bakir Namazi, who was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges, left the country after being released “for humanitarian reasons.”
Iran and the United States have long been negotiating prisoner exchanges, with Oman and Qatar mediating. (AA)