Iran’s government confirmed Tuesday the existence of negotiations with the United States for a prisoner exchange, amid talks in Vienna on the 2015 nuclear deal and Tehran’s demands on the removal of Washington-imposed sanctions of 2018.
“We have repeatedly announced that Iran is ready, for humanitarian reasons, to an exchange of all (US) political prisoners in exchange for all Iranian prisoners imprisoned in the world at the request of the United States,” said Iranian Executive Spokesman Ali Rabiei.
Thus, he stressed that the Iranian authorities raised this option to the Administration of Donald Trump, before stressing that “negotiations are underway” and adding that the results of the negotiations will be published if there is a positive outcome, as reported by the Iranian news agency Tasnim.
Rabiei’s words come nearly five months after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzade denied the existence of these contacts and stressed that there were no direct talks with Washington on any issue.
The confirmation of these talks also comes less than a month before the Iranian president-elect, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, is due to be sworn in, which is scheduled to take place on August 3 following his landslide victory in the last elections.
