Tehran Says Ready For 'Prisoner Swap', Pending US Decision
Iran’s foreign ministry said Sunday that with, or without a nuclear deal Tehran is ready for a “prisoner exchange”, pending Washington’s agreement.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Sunday that with, or without a nuclear deal Tehran is ready for a “prisoner exchange”, pending Washington’s agreement.
The spokesman of the ministry Nasser Kanaani told reporters in Tehran that agreements have been worked out between the sides “and now it is the decision of America whether this deal is implemented or not.” He was responding to a question whether the prisoner exchange scheme has been delayed because nuclear talks with the United States are stalled.
Kanaani did not give details of the prisoner exchange agreement he referred to.
Although both Iran and the United States have claimed that a prisoner exchange deal is not directly tied to the revival of the 2015 nuclear accord, the JCPOA, but indications are that the two issues are intricately connected.
In August, Iran International reported that Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri-Kani had given an off-the-record briefing to local reporters in Tehran about the outlines of a nuclear agreement drafted after 17 months of negotiations in Vienna.
He reportedly said that when a nuclear agreement is signed, and its implementation period begins Iran will release all US prisoners (hostages) once $7 billion worth of its assets frozen in South Korea are released. In fact, the issue of the $7 billion held by two South Korean banks due to US sanctions on Tehran, has been tied to the issue of hostages at least since last December.
Bagheri in his briefing also told reporters that Iran and the US had earlier agreed on this, but Washington reneged on its promise, assuming that the money will give Iran financial breathing room to raise new demands in the nuclear talks.
This does not sound too much off the mark, since US officials have been in frequent talks with South Korean diplomats since 2021, when the fate of the nuclear talks were still uncertain.
In early January, Choi Jong-kun, first vice foreign minister of South Korea visited the venue of the nuclear talks in Vienna and held meetings with various delegations in what was an attempt to untie knots in the talks. Seoul has no involvement in the nuclear dispute, except the $7 billion of Iranian money it holds. Other countries also have frozen Iranian funds.
South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyundong visited Washington on Friday and met with top State Department officials, including US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley. The US envoy tweeted, “We thank the Republic of Korea for their close partnership, including their efforts to help ensure the return of our wrongfully detained citizens in Iran and to reach a deal on JCPOA.”
It is not clear if the visit of the high-ranking Korean diplomat was mainly related to the Iran issue or the meeting with Malley was just one part of his visit, while other international issues such as tensions with China and the war in Ukraine were the main points of agenda for his visit.
The Biden Administration is under pressure to arrange the release of six American citizens and permanent residents held by Iran as of July. In addition there around 20 Western European citizens and residents also taken hostage since the JCPOA was signed in 2015.
But given widespread criticism of the administration’s policy to lift sanctions in order to restore some limits to Iran’s nuclear program, a hostage deal giving Iran $7 billion before a nuclear agreement would be politically costly for the Biden White House.
The EO evoked the 1976 National Emergencies Act and empowered the Secretary of State to “publicly or privately designate or identify officials of foreign governments who are involved, directly or indirectly, in wrongful detentions,.”
In an interview with ‘Washington Post live,’ Sherman, a deputy secretary of state, highlighted as an example of the ‘emergency’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s introduction of the ‘D’ notice as a warning to travelling Americans.
Sherman said the notice was applied to a country that was “using the detention, unjust detention of Americans as leverage, economic leverage, geopolitical leverage.” She insisted the Biden administration was committed to “bring Americans home who are wrongfully detained.”
Families of those detained in US allies like Egypt or Saudi Arabia have saidthe US approach – the ‘D’ notice applies to Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela – is based on politics rather than concern for detained Americans. One relative told the Guardian newspaper in June that Blinken was guilty of “hypocritical cherry-picking.”
Sherman, however, said the ‘D’ indicator was attached to “countries that unjustly detain Americans over a period of time or in numbers.”
“It’s not every American who might be jailed, because sometimes Americans do things that are illegal, that are crimes, and it is not an unjust detention,” she explained.“But we look at things like have they gotten a fair trial, a fair judicial process…”
International human rights organizations and UN experts have repeatedly said that Iran engages in systematic unlawful imprisonment of foreigners and dual-nationals as hostages to gain leverage against Western countries. Usually, Tehran demands the release of people convicted for terrorism or other unlawful acts benefitting the Islamic Republic.
‘Brutal meetings’
Sherman said that her contact with relatives of four Americans detained in Iran had been “brutal meetings,” as it had been with Christine Levinson, the Central Intelligence Agency contractor who disappeared in Kish Island, Iran, in 2007 and who Washington believes is dead.
As Irans' President Ebrahim Raisi is scheduled to arrive in New York soon to attend the United Nations General Assembly, two former hostages in Iran and an ex-political prisoner have announced they will launch a civil lawsuit againt him in the United States.
Sherman, who during the administration of President Barack Obama was actively involved in negotiations leading to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, defended the current administration’s approach to reviving the agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Repeating the US assessment that Iran had given “a pretty tough response” in its latest input to negotiations mediated by the European Union, Sherman said President Joe Biden would “continue to look for ways to move forward as long as we believe that it makes sense to do so.”
The administration was “planning for any eventuality,” Sherman said. “Whether the deal happens or the deal doesn’t happen, the president still believes it is in our interest to pursue the deal, and we’ll continue to do so as long as that is the case.”
The deputy secretary of state insisted that efforts to bring home American detainees from Iran was “a very high priority, the highest priority in many ways.” It was not dependent on whether the JCPOA was revived or not, she said.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman visiting Tehran from her native Kurdistan province was arrested by a hijab police patrol for not covering her hair properly. Immediately after her detention she received a severe head trauma and when two hours later she was transferred to hospital she was already in coma and brain dead.
Part of the political elite has shown rare sympathy for a citizen that many people see as the victim of the regime’s policies and the brutality of its agents. But judging by reactions on social media, not many people believe in these expressions of sympathy, some saying that politicians are after gaining credit from the incident.
Some politicians have criticized the hijab patrols, stopping women on the streets for their loose headscarves, but many on social media say the problem has gone beyond that and it is the clerical regime that is the root of this and similar draconian measures.
Nevertheless, many hardliners are defiant and defend the regime in the tragic incident.
Vice President Ensieh Khazali who has been under attack in recent days for her son having emigrated to Canada, denied the existence of hijab squads which are more than visible in the Iranian streets.
Although Iran's reformists have at times reacted to social events, this is the first time hardliners such as Khazali feel the responsibility to be accountable, but they still evade genuine regrets and express support for the wrong side of the argument.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi wrote in a tweet that he has appointed one of his deputies to investigate the case. Many to his tweet, often harshly criticizing the way the government is handling the case and the issue of hijab and civil liberties in general.
IRGC-linked Fars news agency tried in an utterly fabricated report to whitewash the event by quoting unnamed "reliable sources" as saying that the young woman was ill before being arrested and taken to the notorious Vozara police station in Tehran.
Some Iranian hardliner lawmakers have expressed often vague opinions about the alleged murder. Lawmaker Hassan Lotfi told reporters that he is too busy and that he has not heard about the death of the young woman. He further advised Iranian women to observe the compulsory hijab rules.
Several other conservative lawmakers such as hardliner Jalal Rashidi Kouchi have also promised to follow up the case and end such "bitter events that are against religious teachings". Social media users have reminded other netizens that the MPs made many promises on other matters but failed to stand by their word.
On the reform front former IRGC Navy Commander Hossein Alaei called for a thorough investigation of the hijab squads. He has cautiously suggested that the not only the squads have failed to change Iranian women's lifestyle, but their behavior has led some of women to oppose the compulsory hijab. He further suggested that the hijab squad personnel should be assigned to necessary jobs such as tackling theft and muggings in the streets.
Other pro-reform figures such as former President Mohammad Khatami and politician Gholamhossein Karbaschi seemed to be concerned more about what the tragic event can do to the prestige of the regime. Former lawmaker Ali Motahari also wrote that he feared that the death in custody of Mahsa Amini could portray the Iranian government internationally as an entity like the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Pro-reform commentator Majld Tafreshi also called for an investigation into the case and expressed concern that anti-Iran elements might take advantage of the event.
One of the reformist Green Movement leaders Mehdi Karroubi said in his condolence message that the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has obstructed all avenues for reforms in Iran.
Some former officials and presidential candidates such as Mohsen Mehralizadeh and Abdolnasser Hemmati also mildly expressed regret for what had happened but did not point fingers at anyone. Former Vice Pesident Es'haq Jahangiri simply said that "You cannot ignore such bitter events. Stop this kind of behavior," without making clear who he was addressing.