Iran and the United States have reached an agreement to exchange prisoners, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV on Sunday, but Washington denied it as a “false” claim by Tehran.
“Regarding the issue of prisoner swaps between Iran and the US we have reached an agreement in the recent days and if everything goes well on the US side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in a short period,” Amirabdollahian said.
“On our part everything is ready, while the US is currently working on the final technical coordination.”
A White House official denied Amirabdollahian’s statement about the prisoner swap with Washington, adding that the United States was committed to securing the release of Americans held in Iran.
“Claims by Iranian officials that we have reached a deal for the release of the US citizens wrongfully held by Iran are false,” a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said.
Reached by The Associated Press, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments “another especially cruel lie that only adds to the suffering of their families.”
“We are working relentlessly to secure the release of the three wrongfully detained Americans in Iran,” Price said. “We will not stop until they are reunited with their loved ones.”
Read the article by Parisa Hafezi in The New Daily and Manning River Times (AAP).