DUBAI: In a recent statement, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, expressed optimism about the possibility of a prisoner swap with Washington occurring “in the near future.” He also revealed that Tehran’s long-frozen assets amounting to $6 billion in South Korea would soon be unblocked. However, Kanaani emphasized that these two issues were not interlinked.
This announcement comes after sources informed Reuters last week that the transfer of Iranian funds to banks in Qatar, set to occur as early as this week, would trigger a meticulously orchestrated sequence of events. This sequence aims to facilitate the release of up to five detained U.S. dual nationals currently held in Iran, while a similar number of Iranian prisoners incarcerated in the United States would return home.
The process began on August 10 when Iran released four US citizens from Tehran’s Evin prison, placing them under house arrest. They joined a fifth individual who had already been under house arrest. On that same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged this as the initial step in a broader process leading to the eventual return of these individuals to their home country.
The developments signal a potential breakthrough in diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States. While both sides have consistently denied that the unfreezing of Iranian assets and the prisoner swap are directly linked, the timing of these actions and their proximity to each other cannot be overlooked.
