WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- When $6 billion of unfrozen
Iranian funds are wired to banks in Qatar as early as this week, it will trigger a carefully choreographed sequence that will see as many as five detained Americans leave Iran and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the U.S. fly home, according to to Reuters.
As a first step, Iran on August 10 released four U.S. citizens from Tehran’s Evin prison into house arrest, where they joined a fifth, who was already under house arrest. Later that day U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the move the first step of a process that would lead to their return home.
They include Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Sharqi, 59, as well as Morad Tahbaz, 67, who also holds British nationality, the U.S. administration has said.
The identities of the fourth and fifth Americans, one of whom according to Reuters is a woman, have not been disclosed.
Doha will implement a financial arrangement under which it will pay banking fees, and the prisoners will transit Qatar when they are swapped, according to the news agency which quoted what it called eight anonymous Iranian and other sources allegedly familiar with the negotiations.
A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. was not ready to announce the exact timing of the prisoner release. The Department also declined to discuss the details of what the spokesperson termed “an ongoing and highly sensitive negotiation.”
The U.S. administration has not commented on the timing of the funds transfer. However, on September 5, South Korean foreign minister Park Jin said efforts were under way to transfer Iran’s funds.
Washington consented to the movement of Iranian funds from South Korea to restricted accounts held by financial institutions in Qatar, the spokesperson added.
Ties between the U.S. and Iran have been at boiling point since Donald Trump quit a nuclear deal with Iran as U.S. president in 2018.
The State Department spokesperson also said there had been no change in Washington’s overall approach to Iran, “which continues to be focused on deterrence, pressure and diplomacy.”
The Qatari-led mediation gained momentum in June 2023, said the source briefed on the discussions, adding at least eight rounds of talks had been held since March 2022, with earlier rounds devoted mainly to the nuclear issue and later ones to prisoners.
“They all realized that nuclear (negotiation) is a dead end and shifted focus to prisoners. Prisoners is more simple. It’s easy to get and you can build trust,” he said.
“This is when things got serious again.”
The Iranian, diplomatic and regional sources said that once the money reaches Qatar from South Korea via Switzerland, Qatari officials will instruct Tehran and Washington to proceed with the releases under the terms of a document signed by both sides and Qatar in late July or early August.
The transfer to banks in Qatar is expected to conclude as early as next week if all goes to plan, Reuters said.
“American prisoners will fly to Qatar from Tehran and Iranian prisoners will fly from the U.S. to Qatar, and then be transferred to Iran,” one unnamed sourced told the news agency.
The talks’ most complex part reportedly was arranging a mechanism to ensure transparency in the money transfer. The $6 billion in Iranian assets – the proceeds of oil sales – were frozen under sweeping U.S. oil and financial sanctions against Iran. Then president Trump in 2018 reimposed the sanctions when he pulled Washington out of the deal.