The Reuters news agency has reported, citing sources in Iran and other sources close to Iran-US indirect negotiation on a prisoner swap mediated by Qatar over the past few months as soon as next week, Iran will release five US prisoners and the US, in return, will free five Iranian nationals.
As a first step, Iran on Aug. 10 released four US citizens from Tehran’s Evin prison into house arrest, where they joined a fifth, who was already under house arrest. Later that day US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the move the first step of a process that would lead to their return home.
Doha hosted at least eight rounds of talks involving Iranian and US negotiators sitting in separate hotels speaking via shuttle diplomacy.
The Reuters report further cited a State Department spokesperson as saying that the US was not ready to announce the exact timing of the prisoner release. The Department also declined to discuss the details of what the spokesperson termed “an ongoing and highly sensitive negotiation.”
MNA