Iran Slams US Denial of Deal on Prisoner Swap

In a post on his Twitter account on Sunday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh lashed out at the US officials for refusing to acknowledge the deal on the release of 10 prisoners.

“’Outrageous’=the US denying simple fact that ‘there IS an agreed deal on the matter of the detainees.’ Even on how to announce it,” Khatibzadeh said.

“Humanitarian swap was agreed with US & UK in Vienna-separate from JCPOA- on release of 10 prisoners on all sides,” the Iranian spokesman added.

“Iran is ready to proceed TODAY,” he emphasized.

His comments came after US State Department spokesman Ned Price rejected the remarks from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who urged the US and the UK not to take advantage of the situation facing the 2015 nuclear deal by conditioning potential prisoner exchanges with Iran on the negotiation process.

“US & UK need to understand this and stop linking a humanitarian exchange—ready to be implemented—with the JCPOA,” Araqchi tweeted on Saturday. “Keeping such an exchange hostage to political aims achieves neither,” he noted.

“TEN PRISONERS on all sides may be released TOMORROW if US & UK fulfill their part of deal,” Araqchi stated.

In response, Ned Price described the comments as “an outrageous effort to deflect blame from the current impasse”.

“We stand ready to return to Vienna to complete work on a mutual return to the JCPOA once Iran has made the necessary decisions,” Price said, noting, “With respect to the comments on the Americans whom Iran has unjustly held against their will, we see just another cruel effort to raise the hopes of their families … There is no agreed deal yet.”

Iran and the US have conducted prisoner exchanges twice in the past, once in January 2016 when the nuclear deal was implemented, and again in December 2019.