Iran is ready to swap prisoners with the United States, Iran’s foreign minister said yesterday, adding that talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal could succeed “at the earliest possible time” if the United States makes the necessary political decisions.
Reuters reported on Thursday that a US-Iranian deal is taking shape in Vienna after months of indirect talks to revive the nuclear pact. The draft text of the agreement alluded to other measures, including unfreezing billions of Iranian funds in South Korean banks and the release of Western prisoners held in Iran, Reuters reported.
“We believe prisoner swap is a humanitarian issue...unrelated to the nuclear accord...We can do it immediately,” Hossein Amirabdollahian told a panel at the Munich Security Conference.
Robert Malley, who leads the indirect US talks with Iran in Vienna, has suggested that securing the nuclear pact is unlikely unless Tehran releases four US citizens Washington says it is holding hostage.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on espionage and security-related charges. Tehran denies taking prisoners to gain diplomatic leverage, as claimed by rights activists.
In the past, Iran has called for the release of over a dozen Iranians in the United States, including seven Iranian-American dual nationals, two Iranians with permanent US residency and four Iranian citizens with no legal status in the United States.
Most of them have been jailed for violating US sanctions against Iran. When asked whether Tehran was ready to hold direct talks with Washington, Amirabdollahian did not rule this out.
“They have asked for direct meetings...If Washington’s intentions are genuine, they should take some tangible steps of goodwill on the ground such as freeing Iran’s frozen assets abroad,” he said.
The 2015 deal between Iran and major powers limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium to make it harder for Tehran to develop material for nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
But it has eroded since 2018 when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and reimposed far-reaching sanctions on Iran.
Tehran has since breached the deal’s limits and gone well beyond, rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Both Tehran and Washington have described the nuclear talks as constructive since last week, when the negotiations resumed after a 10-day pause.
However, they have also said that tough political decisions needed to be taken to overcome the remaining differences.
“I would like to emphasise here that we are ready to achieve a good deal, at the earliest possible time, if the other side makes the needed political decision,” Amirabdollahian said.
“If the talks fail in Vienna, Western powers will be responsible for the failure because we want a good deal.”
