DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran is optimistic that a prisoner swap with Washington will take place “in the near future”, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday, adding that Tehran’s frozen assets of $6 billion in South Korea will be cleared in the coming days will be unblocked.
However, Nasser Kanaani said the two issues were not related.
Sources told Reuters last week that the transfer of Iranian funds to banks in Qatar as early as this week will trigger a carefully choreographed sequence that will see as many as five detained U.S. dual citizens leave Iran and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the U.S. flee away. At home.
In a first step, Iran released four U.S. citizens from Tehran’s Evin Prison under house arrest on August 10, joining a fifth already under house arrest. Later that day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the move the first step in a process that would lead to their return home.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra)
