Iran downplays state media report on US prisoner swap
The US government has also denied that it reached a deal to swap prisoners with Iran.
Iranian officials say they can’t confirm an Iranian state media report that said the United States and Iran have agreed to swap prisoners, even as the Joe Biden administration forcefully shot down the report as untrue.
Quoting an unnamed Iranian official, state-run TV reported on Sunday that Washington and Tehran had agreed four Iranian-Americans detained in Iran for alleged spying would be traded for four Iranians held in the United States for sanctions violations, as well as the release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian funds.
But Iran’s United Nations ambassador, Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, later dismissed the report as “not confirmed.”
“Iran has always emphasized the comprehensive exchange of prisoners between the two countries,” he said, according to state-run IRNA news agency.
