Sept. 12 (UPI) — A prisoner swap between the United States and Iran appeared to be moving forward on Tuesday, according to comments by officials from both countries.
The deal will see the exchange of five prisoners each as well as the United States unfreezing $6 billion of Iranian funds that U.S. officials say Tehran will only be able to use for humanitarian purposes under strict Treasury oversight.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters during a press conference in Washington on Tuesday that “the funds are in the process of being transferred” from South Korean accounts where they were frozen to accounts in Qatar where Iran will have access to them.
The transfer was facilitated by sanction waivers that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had signed Friday, an action Congress was notified of on Monday.
The Iran Mission to the United Nations confirmed to Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Tuesday the names of five imprisoned Iranians it seeks to have released.
The individuals were identified as Mehrdad Moein Ansari, Kambiz Attar-Kashani, Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, Amin Hassanzadeh and Kaveh Lotfollah Afrasyabi.
Ansari was sentenced in 2021 to more than 5 years’ imprisonment for attempting to obtain sensitive military parts for Tehran.
Dual U.S.-Iranian citizen Kashani was sentenced in February to 30 months over procuring electronic goods and technology for Iranian end-users.
Kashani, an Iranian who resided in Montreal, Canada, was indicted in July 2021 on multiple charges on allegations of exporting laboratory equipment from the United States to Iran.
Afrasyabi was charged in January 2021 with acting as an unregistered agent of Iran and lobbying U.S. officials to enact policies favorable to the Middle Eastern nation.
The final individual, Hasanzadeh, was charged in 2019 on allegations of sending technology to Iran.
Last month, U.S. officials announced that five Americans held in Tehran’s infamous Evin prison had been moved to house arrest, suggesting that they may soon be freed.
Those individuals, whom the Biden administration has said were wrongly detained, were named as Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz with the two others not publicly identified.
The announcement of the waivers being issued, which allows banks to release and move the Iranian funds without fear of being hit with sanctions, sparked anger from Republican politicians, some of whom incorrectly framed it as the United States giving Tehran $6 billion as part of the deal — including former President Donald Trump, who said the deal sets a “terrible precedent.”
“We gave them 5 very tough, smart people that they desperately wanted,” the four-time indicted former president said on his Truth Social platform. “We likewise got back 5 people but, we also gave them 6 billion dollars!”
Miller repeatedly argued against this notion during the press conference, reiterating that the money is Iran’s and that the United States was not giving them anything.
He also rejected the idea that the United States would be able to secure the release of five Americans without Iran receiving something in exchange.
“Iran is not going to release these American citizens out of the goodness of their heart. That is not real life. That is not how this works,” he said.
“We have to make tough choices and engage in tough negotiations to bring these American citizens home. There were five American citizens who have been jailed under brutal conditions, one of them for more than eight years, and the secretary and the president decided that we need to do everything we can to bring them home, and that’s what we’re doing.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in an interview with NBC News rejected the idea that the funds released would only go to humanitarian needs, stating they will spend it “wherever we need it.”
“This money belongs to the Iranian people, the Iranian government, so the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide what to do with this money,” he said.
“Humanitarian means whatever the Iranian people needs, so this money will be budgeted for those needs, and the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.”
Miller told reporters during the press conference that the funds can only be spent on items such as food, medicine and other such humanitarian products. In response to Raisi’s comments, Miller said he understands why the Iranian president may need to make those remarks, but they are simply not true.
“The facts of this arrangement are when this money arrives in these accounts in Qatar, it will be held there under strict oversight by the United States Treasury Department and the money can only be used for humanitarian purposes, and we will remain vigilant in watching the spending of those funds and have the ability to freeze them again if we need to,” he said.