Nobody agrees. While Iran indicated on Sunday that everything was “ready” to carry out a prisoner exchange with the United States, American diplomacy completely swept away this declaration.
“Over the past few days, we have reached an agreement on a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States. If all goes well on the American side, I think we will be able to attend in the near future,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a television interview.
“For us, everything is ready. The US side is working on its final technical preparations,” he added. The spokesman for American diplomacy Ned Price nevertheless denounced these remarks as “another particularly cruel lie which only adds to the suffering of the families” of the detainees.
At least three Iranian-Americans detained
“We are working tirelessly to secure the release of the three Americans wrongfully detained in Iran. We won’t stop until they find their loved ones,” Price added. At least three Iranian-Americans are being held in Iran, including businessman Siamak Namazi.
The Iranian judicial authority had reported in August the detention of “dozens” of Iranian nationals in the United States, including Reza Sarhangpour and Kambiz Attar Kashani, accused of having “diverted American sanctions” taken against Tehran. In a CNN interview broadcast on March 9, Siamak Namazi called on President Joe Biden to “put the freedom of innocent Americans above politics” by promoting their release.