Iran raises possibility of more prisoner exchanges with US
Tehran has raised the possibility of exchanging more prisoners with Washington, reaffirming Iran’s readiness for more diplomatic efforts to secure the release of its citizens held hostage in the US.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday that Iran has already announced that it stands ready to do all in its power to secure the release of Iranian hostages in US jails and bring them back home “within different frameworks.”
The Islamic Republic, he added, showed “goodwill” and made a “humanitarian" gesture in response to the proposals by some countries and figures, including Switzerland and its ambassador to Tehran, for the freedom of US security prisoners, whose wrongdoings are confirmed.
“If we find the conditions ripe again for such swaps or if we can prove the innocence of the Iranian citizens, who are facing baseless and delusional charges of circumventing unilateral, illegal and groundless US sanctions, we will definitely use all our diplomatic means to free our dear ones and reunite them with their families,” Mousavi said.
Last week, Iran freed US navy veteran Michael White as part of a prisoner swap, in which the US released Majid Taheri, an Iranian scientist who had been imprisoned in the US on false charges, after spending over a year in jail.
Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Gholam-Hossein Esmaeili said White was freed “on humanitarian grounds” while taking the country’s “general interests” into consideration.
The prisoners exchange came a day after Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari, a professor of material sciences at Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, returned home after spending about three years in detention in the US.
He was held behind bars in Louisiana despite having been exonerated in a sanctions trial.
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