TEHRAN – Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday signaled that an exchange of prisoners with the United States could happen soon after he said an initial agreement has been reached on the long-standing issue.
“We reached an agreement in the past few days and if everything goes well on the American side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in the short term,” Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said.
“An agreement was signed between us and the American side during indirect talks in March last year, but the grounds to implement it have now been prepared. In our point of view, everything is ready. The American side is engaged in its own final technical coordinations.”
The comments by Iran’s top diplomat come as his deputy, Ali Bagheri Kani, who is also the country’s top nuclear negotiator, has travelled to Oman – which has acted as a mediator between Tehran and Washington on prisoner exchange talks.
In October, 85-year-old Iranian Baquer Namazi left Iran onboard a Royal Air Force of Oman jet after Tehran decided to free him due to poor health.
His son, Siamak Namazi, is one of three known U.S. prisoners left behind bars in Iran, where all of them have been arrested on espionage charges.
Earlier this week, Namazi had an interview with U.S. outlet CNN from inside the Evin prison in Tehran, and directly implored U.S. President Joe Biden to secure his release, along with that of 58-year-old Emad Sharghi and 67-year-old Morad Tahbaz.
Neither side has confirmed details of a potential agreement, but it is believed that in addition to the release of an unknown number of Iranian prisoners in the U.S., $7 billion of Iranian money frozen by South Korea due to US sanctions could also be released.
Iran has repeatedly blamed the U.S. for a delay in both the prisoner