Iran and US agree to release financial assets and prisoners
According to Blinken, the US has been in contact with the families of the five released citizens. The draft deal, which would free five Americans, does not include any sanctions relief for Iran, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday.
Iran will not be exempt from sanctions in any way, shape or form. "When asked about the anticipated release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds, Blinken told reporters.
Blinken claims that the prisoner swap did not ease sanctions on Iran.
He claimed that "Iran's own funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts so that the money could only be used for humanitarian purposes." Blinken said that, in a long-awaited first step towards their release, the US has been in contact with the families of the five Americans who were released under house arrest.
He said: "In my view, this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare, as well as the nightmare that their families have experienced". Blinken said he was not aware of any other Americans detained in Iran. The release of Americans whom Washington believes have been "arbitrarily detained" in Iran, with which Washington has no diplomatic relations, was discussed last June in Oman.
Iran has been accused of using dual nationals and prisoners from other nations as a form of pressure or for prisoner exchanges with other states, a strategy that other nations and human rights organisations have dubbed "hostage diplomacy". Donald Trump's administration (2017-2021) withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, prompting Tehran to accelerate its uranium enrichment, and Joe Biden's administration ruled out that negotiation would also include a resumption of the pact.
As part of the exchange of five US prisoners, including Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and two unidentified others, an estimated $6 billion in gas debts will be released.
The five Americans were placed under house arrest last night and will be able to leave once Iran receives the necessary funds and a comparable number of Iranian prisoners being held in the US are released. Iran's Foreign Ministry announced that the American prisoners were still on its territory and would soon be released along with other detainees held by the US in violation of international law.
Regarding the exchange of five prisoners and the unfreezing of several billion Iranian dollars that the US had frozen in South Korea, Iran confirmed that it had reached an agreement with the US. According to a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry this morning, "the process of releasing billions of dollars worth of assets of the Islamic Republic that the United States had illegally seized in South Korea has begun".
Contrary to US media reports that the assets will remain in Qatar and can only be used to buy medicine, Iranian diplomacy insisted that "these resources will be spent for the various needs of the country, as determined by the competent authorities".
Americas Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.
