Speaking to reporters Monday in Tehran, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Iran had provided the names of the detained Iranians to the U.S. and was ready to do a trade. He did not specify who was on the list or how it was handed to Washington, with whom Tehran has no formal ties.
But Mousavi said the Iranian government believes about 20 Iranians have been detained by the U.S. on what it considers to be “baseless” charges of circumventing U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. He singled out one of them, Iranian scientist Masoud Soleimani, as a cause for concern due to ill health.
U.S. authorities arrested Soleimani, a stem cell researcher, in October 2018 upon his arrival at a Chicago airport. He was charged with trying to export biological materials to Iran in violation of the sanctions.
Asked by VOA Persian to confirm whether it has received Iran’s list for a proposed prisoner swap, a State Department spokesperson declined to comment specifically and only restated U.S. policy, saying: “The recovery of hostages held by the Islamic Republic of Iran is a top priority for the U.S. government.”
Iran has been detaining at least four Americans for security-related offenses that their relatives and supporters have dismissed as trumped-up charges. The detainees include former U.S. soldier Michael R. White, Chinese-American Princeton University researcher Xiyue Wang, and Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his elderly father Mohammad Bagher Namazi.
A fifth American, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, went missing in Iran 12 years ago and his family has said they believe he remains in detention there, a contention denied by Tehran.
Previously, Reuters quoted a
U.S. news site
In January 2016, U.S. President Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama freed seven Iranians held in the U.S. in exchange for Iran releasing four Iranian-American prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian.
While campaigning for the U.S. presidential election later that year, Trump criticized Obama for delivering a planeload of cash worth $400 million to Iran on the same day that it released the four Americans, calling it a ransom payment. The Obama administration said the money was previously owed by the U.S. government to Iran but acknowledged using it as leverage to win the Americans’ freedom.
“I know President Trump is reluctant (to do a prisoner swap), but the only solution to get these Americans back home is to engage in some quid pro quo with Iran,” Vaez said. “If the arrangement is limited to a swap of prisoners (and does not include a transfer of cash), it would be more palatable politically in Washington,” Vaez added.
Decades-old tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated since last year, when Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal between world powers and Iran to limit the Iranian nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions on the Iranian economy. Trump criticized the deal as not doing enough to stop Iran from engaging in malign behaviors and has been tightening U.S. sanctions against Tehran ever since to achieve that goal.
Iran has vowed to resist those sanctions and retaliate for any U.S. military action against it.
This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Cindy Saine contributed from the State Department.