IRIA News

After months of negotiations, Iran has released five detained American citizens after striking a prisoner swap deal with the United States. In return, the U.S. unfroze $6 billion of Iran’s oil money and released five Iranian citizens from its jails.

The rare moment of cooperation between the fierce rivals was brokered by Qatar and Switzerland. The prisoner swap deal took months to mature. Qatari and Swiss representatives carried out negotiations on behalf of the U.S., which does not have a direct diplomatic channel with Iran.  

The five American-Iranian dual nationals landed in Doha, Qatar, on September 18, 2023, after being released by Iran. The prisoners were freed after both sides got confirmation that the $6 billion was transferred from South Korea to Qatari accounts. The $6 billion figure is the money that South Korea owed to Iran for the oil purchased before the U.S. imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.

Iranian prisoners in the U.S. were also released as part of the deal. Observers and analysts believe that the prisoner swap deal between Iran and the U.S. would play a significant role in de-escalating the tensions between the two countries.

“Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home,” U.S. President Joe Biden said after the plane carrying five released prisoners and two of their family members landed in Doha. Biden said all five had endured “years of agony, uncertainty, and suffering.”

The released Americans include 51-year-old Siamak Namazi, who has spent nearly eight years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Emad Shargi, 59, and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67, who also holds British nationality. The identities of two U.S. citizens were not disclosed at their request and desire for privacy.

Siamak Namazi was arrested by the Iranian authorities in 2016, along with his father Baquer Namazi after they arrived in Tehran. They were sentenced to 10 years in prison on the charges of collaborating with a foreign government.

In October 2022, the 85-year-old Baquer Namazi was released due to old age and bad health conditions, however, Siamak Namazi remained in the Iranian prison. He was one of the longest-held Iranian-American citizens in Iran.

Emad Sharghi had been in an Iranian prison for four years under the charges of spying and conspiring against the Iranian regime, while Morad Tahbaz, a London-born Iranian-American citizen, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 under the same charges

The U.S. has also released five Iranian citizens Reza Sarhangpour, Kambiz Attar Kashani, Kaveh Lotfolah Afrasiabi, Mehrdad Moein Ansari, and Amin Hasanzadeh.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the U.S. after their release. Some Iranian media outlets said that two of the Iranian prisoners were moved to Doha following the swap.

Ransom payment and sanction relief

Earlier this year, the Iranian foreign ministry claimed that it worked out a prisoner swap deal with the U.S. counterparts and that an initial agreement has been reached, however, the U.S. officials denied the claims at that time.

The prisoner swap deal with Iran faces a lot of internal criticism in the U.S. political sphere. Republican senators and representatives have denounced the deal as a ransom payment and sanctions relief. The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, castigated the U.S. government for transferring funds to “the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism”.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump also slammed the prisoner swap deal, calling Biden “dumb” for agreeing to unfreeze the Iranian funds. Biden administration officials, however, hailed the release of the U.S. citizens.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the deal gives Iran access to “its own money”, not U.S. funds, addressing a common misconception surrounding the negotiations. He added that Washington would also make sure that unfrozen funds are used only for humanitarian purposes by the Iranian administration.

“We’re very confident that the Iranian funds that had been made more easily available to Iran as a result of the actions that we’ve taken will be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes,” Blinken said adding that “we have the means and mechanisms to make sure that that happens.”

Iran has billions of dollars frozen in foreign banks that Tehran cannot access because of U.S. sanctions. The funds, which are largely made up of Iran’s oil exports, are frozen in different banks across China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Iraq.