Iran FM: Initial agreement reached with US for prisoner swap
The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran and Washington have reached an initial agreement to exchange prisoners.
“We reached an agreement in recent days on the issue of prisoner swap,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Sunday, adding if everything goes well by the American side, the exchange would take place soon, Press TV reported.
He noted Iran regards the case as a “completely humanitarian issue,” adding that a document has “indirectly” been signed and approved between Tehran and Washington since March last year in this regard.
“The ground for its implementation has been prepared now, and from our point of view, everything is ready while the US is currently working on the final technical coordination,” the top Iranian diplomat explained.
Talking to AP later in the day, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price did not confirm the deal.
Turning to the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Amir-Abdollahian said indirect exchange of messages between Tehran and Washington is underway.
Commenting on the cooperation between the Islamic Republic and the United Nations nuclear watchdog, he stressed that what matters to Iran greatly is that the baseless allegations against Tehran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must be dismissed, according to Tasnim News Agency.
Pointing to the “strong cooperation” between Iran and the IAEA, Amir-Abdollahian said such interaction will have a positive effect on the negotiations on the removal of the sanctions.
“In the sanctions removal talks, the American side has lacked the courage to make the final decision so far, while Iran has proposed the ideas very transparently at the negotiating table,” he stated.