Iran has released several US citizens as part of a prisoner swap. A senior US government official said they were on board a plane en route from Tehran to Qatar. Iran had recently announced that the exchange would take place on Monday. A person familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency that the men would then be taken to the United States from Qatar.
Five Americans should therefore return to their home country. In return, the US pardoned five Iranians who had been convicted or charged there. It is not yet known whether the prisoners are already on their way.
Iran repeatedly detains foreigners on charges of espionage or other national security violations. Human rights activists criticize the proceedings, which are often held behind closed doors, as unfair. The Islamic Republic is also accused of holding foreigners hostage. Several Germans are also imprisoned in Iran.
Relations between Iran and the US are historically bad. Both countries were repeatedly on the brink of war. In January 2020, the US killed the powerful Iranian general Ghassem Soleimani in a drone strike in neighboring Iraq. Weeks of military tension followed.
The prisoner exchange that is now underway has been in preparation for months. At the beginning of August, Iran released the now released Americans from custody and placed them under house arrest in a hotel in the capital Tehran.
In addition to the mutual release of the prisoners, the deal also provides for the release of previously frozen Iranian assets by the US government. It is a sum of around six billion US dollars (around 5.6 billion euros). Due to the punitive measures, Iran is cut off from global payment transactions.
At the beginning of last week, the US government had already granted an exemption for banks so that they could transfer frozen Iranian assets without having to fear US sanctions. reported the Washington Post citing government sources. The assets come from an oil purchase by the South Korean government, which the Trump administration in office at the time in the US initially allowed Seoul to purchase. However, the sanctions were then tightened and the money was frozen in South Korea.
Money should only be used for humanitarian purposes
According to Tehran and Washington, the assets to which Iran should now have access were exchanged by South Korea for euros in several tranches and transferred to Qatar. The Islamic Republic should be able to use the assets to purchase goods under supervision that are not affected by international sanctions.
There had previously been a lot of criticism of the agreement with Tehran. Former US Vice President Mike Pence called the deal the “largest ransom payment in American history.” Critics warned that Tehran could possibly use the billions of dollars for military purposes. The US government has tried to allay such concerns in recent weeks. She emphasized several times that the billions could only be used for humanitarian purposes – for example for medicine or food. It is not a ransom and not money from US taxpayers, but rather Iranian money that should only benefit the Iranian people and not Iran’s leadership. According to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, releasing the payments is in the interests of the national security of the United States. The US side also previously rejected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s claims that the money should flow into other areas, such as domestic production.