Iran open for prisoner swap if US unlocks assets: FM

Iran is willing to make an extensive prison-swap deal with the US and to engage in direct talks if Washington releases $8 billion worth in frozen overseas assets, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday, according to a Guardian report.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the FM said the prisoner swap issue was a "humanitarian" one, and that an agreement of some sort was made last year.

Amir-Abdollahian said that the US was interested in linking the potential prisoner swap with the ongoing nuclear deal Vienna talks but insisted that Iran does not share that point of view, and a deal can be reached "immediately away from the talks".

The top diplomat's remarks also confirmed that the US was trying to include the release several dual national political prisoners in the deal.

During the conference, Amir-Abdollahian also said that "the US and Iran have never been so close in reaching a deal as we are today", in reference to the nuclear deal talks, which were stalled when then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.

The nuclear deal talks have since been brought back after President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021.

Amir-Abdollahian also urged the US to show "flexibility" in providing legal, political, and economic guarantees that it will honour.

He stressed that the most important guarantee was an economic one, and that Iran wants to ensure that no sanctions can be legally applied should an Iranian company make a deal with a foreign one.

The minister proposed that parliaments of the countries sign the deal to "confirm some kind of support for the talks’ outcome".