Financial news

US denies Iran announcement of prisoner exchange agreement – JURIST

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian Sunday announced that Iran and the US had reached a prisoner exchange agreement. However, the US National Security Council denied that an agreement had been reached.According to Amirabdollahian, the countries agreed to the deal “in recent days,” and “if everything goes well from the American side, it will be done in the coming days.” The alleged agreement would involve three Iranian-American citizens imprisoned in Iran. These prisoners include Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi and Murad Tahbaz. Earlier this year, Namazi announced that he had commenced a hunger strike in Iran’s Evin Prison. Iran imprisoned Namazi in 2015 on charges of espionage and colluding with a “hostile foreign government.”In response to the announcement, a US National Security Council official told Al Arabiya English, “Unfortunately, Iranian officials will not hesitate to make things up, and the latest cruel claim will cause more heartache for the families of Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz.”This announcement comes after the re-establishing of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The two countries ended diplomatic relations in 2016 when Saudi Arabia executed Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi officials sentenced al-Minr to death for alleged participation in the 2011 Arab Spring Movement.