Today, a White House official denied Iran’s claim that Washington and Tehran had reached a prisoner exchange agreement, and said, “The United States is committed to ensuring the release of Americans detained in the Islamic Republic.”
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council said, “The claims by Iranian officials that we reached an agreement to release American citizens wrongly detained by Iran are false.”
“Unfortunately, Iranian officials will not hesitate to make things up and the recent harsh allegations will lead to more grief for the families of Siamak Namazi, Imad Sharqi and Morad Tahbaz,” he added, referring to three Iranian-American dual nationals being held in Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian announced earlier today on state television that Iran and the United States had reached an agreement to exchange prisoners, adding that he hoped the exchange would take place soon.
“We reached an agreement in recent days regarding the issue of a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States, and if things go well from the American side, I think we will witness an exchange of prisoners in a short period. From our side everything is ready, while the United States is working,” Abdullahian said. Currently on final technical coordination.
