IFP Exclusive

Iran No Longer Interested in Prisoner Swap with US: Report

An informed Iranian source says the country is no longer willing to swap prisoners with the United States.

“Iran, previously and on humanitarian grounds, backed down on its stance on ‘swapping all Iranian prisoners with all American prisoners’, and accepted individual swaps. But, now, seeing the dirty behavior of the administration of [US President Joe] Biden and its continued failure to fulfill its obligations, the motivation is lacking for Iran to continue this process. Therefore, Iran will completely remove from its agenda the issue of [prisoner] swap in the current form,” Nour News, a media outlet close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, quoted the informed source as saying.

According to the Nour News report, after US President Joe Biden took office, he claimed human rights come before political issues and asked for resumption of talks on the exchange of prisoners. London followed suite and asked simultaneous negotiations on the release of Nazanin Zaghari, who is imprisoned in Iran. 

There followed indirect talks between Iran and the US on the release of four Americans in exchange for four Iranians jailed in the US, plus the release of seven billion dollars in Iranian assets, frozen in third countries, as well as talks with the UK on the release of Zaghari. Both talks continued until there was a final agreement.   

Iran went into the talks declaring that the issue of the prisoners will not be linked to the talks in Vienna for revival of the nuclear deal. Tehran also stressed that it is going into the talks just on humanitarian grounds.

However, after the Vienna talks were stalled, the US went back on its initial claims and tied the swap to the negotiations. Washington claimed the release of Iranian funds would reduce Tehran’s motivation to continue the Vienna talks. London followed suite on the US and the talks on a prisoner swap came to a complete halt.

IFP Editorial Staff

The IFP Editorial Staff is composed of dozens of skilled journalists, news-writers, and analysts whose works are edited and published by experienced editors specialized in Iran News. The editor of each IFP Service is responsible for the report published by the Iran Front Page (IFP) news website, and can be contacted through the ways mentioned in the "IFP Editorial Staff" section.

Recent Posts

Iran lifts Ban on WhatsApp, Google Play in a landmark decision

In a significant move towards greater digital accessibility, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, chaired by…

4 hours ago

One child gets killed every hour in Gaza: UN

The United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has announced that 14,500 Palestinian children have…

7 hours ago

Several killed in blast at explosives factory in Turkey

At least 12 people were killed and three others wounded after a blast rocked an…

7 hours ago

Zelensky claims over 3k North Korean soldiers killed, wounded in Russia

The number of killed and injured North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk…

7 hours ago

Iran Judiciary: No complains lodged against ex-FM Zarif over dual citizenship

The spokesperson for Iran’s Judiciary clarified that no complaints have been filed against former Foreign…

7 hours ago

Iran to unveil first AI-equipped oil well

The Iranian Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy has announced the inauguration of…

10 hours ago