Qatar PM says Iran-US prisoner deal 'rebuilding confidence' between two states

Qatar’s prime minister has hailed his country’s role in facilitating the release of five US citizens from Iran as a step towards building confidence between the two states.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani made the remarks in a Tuesday interview with CNN — his first comments since the Qatar-mediated deal.

“We were so proud to see that Qatar helped in bringing those people back to their families,” Al-Thani said. “What happened yesterday actually was a great building block for rebuilding the confidence between the two countries.

Asked whether the mediation could lead to agreement on a new US-Iran nuclear accord, Al-Thani said: "I hope both countries are believing that this will lead to a better environment to go for an entire agreement on the nuclear issue, and any other outstanding issue," he said.

Five Americans freed by Iran, including a businessman arrested in 2015, landed in Doha on a Qatari jet on Tuesday, hours after $6 billion in unblocked funds were credited to Iranian accounts in Qatari banks.

The Americans were named as Emad Shargi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, along with two others who were not publicly named.

As the prisoners were released, US President Joe Biden granted clemency to five Iranians jailed in the US, and announced sanctions against Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country's intelligence ministry.

The sanctions were imposed over alleged deceit over the disappearance of Bob Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in mysterious circumstance and is presumed dead.