White House denies agreeing prisoner swap deal with Iran

The White House has denied as “false” Iran’s claim that an agreement has been reached to exchange prisoners, Reuters has reported.

“Regarding the issue of prisoner swaps between Iran and the US, we have reached an agreement in recent days and if everything goes well on the US side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange shortly,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told state TV on Sunday. “On our part, everything is ready, while the US is currently working on the final technical coordination.”

However, a White House official denied that a prisoner swap is imminent, but added that the US is committed to securing the release of Americans held in Iran. “Claims by Iranian officials that we have reached a deal for the release of the US citizens wrongfully held by Iran are false,” said the official.

A source briefed on the talks said the prisoner exchange is “closer than it has ever been,” but one of the remaining sticking points is linked to $7 billion in Iranian oil funds frozen under US sanctions in South Korea. “The logistics of how these funds will be exchanged and how oversight will be provided are unresolved,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The source added that Qatar and Switzerland have been involved in the prisoner exchange talks. Iranian sources confirmed to Reuters that two regional countries were involved in the indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.

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One of several Americans held in Iran is Siamak Namazi, a businessman with dual US-Iranian citizenship. He was sentenced in 2016 to ten years in prison for spying and cooperating with the US government. Iranian American businessman Emad Sharghi was first arrested by Iran in 2018 when he was working for a tech investment company, as was environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship.

For years, Tehran has sought the release of more than a dozen Iranians held in the US, including seven Iranian American dual nationals, two Iranians with permanent US residency and four Iranian citizens with no legal status in the US.

In 2018, the then US President Donald Trump withdrew unilaterally from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers — Joint Comprehensive Plane of Action — and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Islamic Republic’s economy. The deal had imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions. In reaction to the US sanctions, Tehran has gradually broken the curbs imposed by the JCPA on its nuclear programme. Indirect talks between Tehran and US President Joe Biden’s administration on reviving the agreement have stalled since September.