New details have emerged about an imminent prisoner exchange between the United States of America (US) and Iran, with the US admitting for the first time that it will release five Iranians as part of the deal, whose names the government in Tehran confirmed to VOA.
The U.S. confirmation of its agreement to release the five Iranians came in a State Department statement sent to VOA late Monday. A few hours earlier, Western news agencies reported that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had informed the US Congress of the upcoming move.
The US and Iran had already confirmed on August 10 that, under the prisoner deal, Tehran would also release five American citizens who Washington said were unjustly detained.
"As we previously stated, the US has agreed to allow the transfer of funds from South Korea to restricted accounts at financial institutions in Qatar and to release five Iranian nationals currently detained in the United States to facilitate the release of five US nationals detained in Iran. ", a spokesperson for the State Department wrote to VOA.
The Iranian mission to the UN in New York confirmed in a message to VOA the names of the five Iranians who should be exchanged. The names were first published by the news site Al-Monitor earlier on Monday.
Among the five Iranian nationals named by Iran are Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, Merdad Ansari, Amin Hasanzadeh, Reza Sarangpur Kafrani and Kambiz Atar Kashani. All five are among 11 Iranians first identified by VOA in an Aug. 24 report as potential candidates for inclusion in the exchange.
Asked by VOA to confirm whether the five people identified by Iran would be released, a State Department spokesman declined to comment. All were arrested on federal charges of violating US sanctions on Iran or providing Tehran with other forms of illegal assistance.
There was also no confirmation from the US on when and how the five Americans and five Iranians would be exchanged.
A State Department spokesman said the US was continuing to work to free the five US citizens and was closely monitoring their health with the help of its Swiss partners, but added: "We have no updates to share at this time."
Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Khanani on Monday as saying the exchange would take place "in the near future."
Of the five people named by Iran, four are Iranians without US citizenship: Afrasiabi, Ansari, Hasanzadeh and Kafrani. Afrasiabi and Hasanzadeh are permanent residents of the US, while Kafrani does not have legal status in the US. A fifth Iranian, Kashani, has Iranian-American dual citizenship.
Three of the five were released under supervision: Afrasiabi, Hasanzadeh and Kafrani. Their inclusion in the prisoner deal would mean the federal charges against them are dropped and they are freed from restrictions on movement outside their homes.
The other two, Ansari and Kashani, are serving sentences in federal prisons in Louisiana and Michigan, respectively. Their inclusion in the deal would mean their release several months before the end of their prison sentences, which end in December for Ansari and in February for Kashani.
Speaking to VOA on Monday, Barry Rosen, a former American hostage in Iran, said he expects most of the five Iranians to be released by the US will not return to the country because they have significant ties to America. The image of a prisoner exchange on an airport runway somewhere in the Middle East would give Iran a propaganda boost, but he doubts the US would agree to action directed in such a way.
Criticism and praise
Critics of the Biden administration's policy toward Iran told VOA that an agreement to release the five Iranians would have negative consequences for the United States.
"The Islamic Republic will herald this as a significant victory for its longstanding policy of taking Western hostages in exchange for the ransom and release of duly convicted Iranian nationals," said Andrea Striker of the Washington think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"Instead of facing US penalties or consequences, the regime will be emboldened to continue kidnapping innocent people," she added.
The Biden administration rejected claims by critics who said the unfreezing of $XNUMX billion in funds in South Korean banks was like a ransom payment. It said Tehran would regain access to Iranian assets that had been frozen by US sanctions and would only be able to access them through a third party for humanitarian procurement, under US supervision.
Jason Brodsky, policy director of the US group United Against a Nuclear Iran, said he believed the $XNUMX billion unfreeze should be "more than enough" to secure the release of Americans held by Iran.
"The additional release of Iranians accused of crimes in the US is an attempt by Tehran to create a false equality between the justice system in the United States and the system of injustice in Iran," Brodsky said.
Sina Tusi, a researcher at the Washington Center for International Policy and a supporter of the emerging US-Iran deal, reacted positively to the developments on Monday in a post on the X social network platform.
"It is a welcome development that the US and Iran are close to implementing an agreement that will bring some relief to the families of unjustly held prisoners, as well as to the millions of Iranians suffering from the economic crisis caused by US sanctions," Tusi wrote.
Iran confirmed in August that it had placed five American prisoners under house arrest. The US named three - Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tabaz - but declined to name the other two whose detention had not been previously confirmed, citing their privacy.
Namazi, Shargi, Tabaz and one of the remaining two American prisoners were transferred from Tehran's infamous Evin prison to house arrest at an unnamed hotel, where they will be guarded by Iranian authorities, human rights lawyer Jared Genser said in a statement on October 10. August.
He also said that the fifth American was a woman who had already been under house arrest.
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