After the recent agreement between Iran and the United States on the release of Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea, as well as the exchange of prisoners between Tehran and Washington, new details on that mediate are revealed to the media.
Hamidreza Dehghani-Podeh, Iran’s ambassador to Qatar, who is in the process of farewell meetings with Qatari officials at the end of his mission in Doha, wrote in a post on X social network (former Twitter), “In the meeting with Mr. Mohammed Al Khulaifi, Qatar’s Minister of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after reviewing the measures taken and the steps ahead, I expressed gratitude to him for his role in promoting bilateral relations, especially regarding the swap agreement, which we are in the final stages of implementing.”
The Reuters news agency on Sunday reported, citing sources in Iran and other sources close to Iran-US indirect talks on a prisoner swap mediated by Qatar over the past few months that Iran will release five US prisoners and the US, in return, would free five Iranian nationals as soon as next week (this week). The report added that the US would also allow the transfer of Iran’s frozen money to Qatar.
Moreover, the Associated Press reported earlier today that the Biden administration has issued a waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of US sanctions.
The AP said the Biden administration has also agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.
It added that Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the sanctions waivers late last week, a month after US and Iranian officials said an agreement in principle was in place on the issue.
Iran has said that it has done the prisoner swap to release its own prisoners illegally held in the United States.
KI
