Trump Administration Holds Talks with Iran over US Prisoners

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman says representatives of the new US administration have raised the issue of a couple of Iranian-American prisoners held in Iran’s prisons on the sidelines of a recent meeting with the Iranian side in Vienna.

Speaking in his weekly press conference on Monday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the representatives of Trump administration recently raised the issue of one or two Iranian-American dual citizens held for certain reasons in Iran’s prisons.

The American side raised the issue on the sidelines of the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting recently held in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Qassemi added, according to a Farsi report by Etemad.

However, he noted, Iran has no talks with the US, and what exchanged in JCPOA Joint Commission meetings are nuclear-related and JCPOA-related issues and bilateral talks frequently held between Iran and other sides.

“We still do not have any instruction for holding talks with the US on issues other than the nuclear deal,” he added.

In the past, for humanitarian reasons, Iran and the US had contacts on the issue of certain prisoners and the Iranians held in the US, which led to positive results, Qassemi said.

Nevertheless, he stressed, that happened during the previous US administration.

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.