Iran intends to release the US citizens who have been moved from prison to house arrest as part of the prisoner swap agreement, contingent upon gaining access to their frozen assets. This statement was made by Mohammad Jamshidi, Iran's Deputy Chief of Presidential Administration for Political Affairs.
"Unless our citizens, who are being unlawfully held [in the US], are released and access to assets blocked in South Korea is restored, US prisoners will not be allowed to leave Iran," Jamshidi stated on the social networking site X (formerly Twitter).
On Thursday, Jared Genser, an attorney representing one of the American citizens, informed CNN that Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz, Emad Sharghi, and an undisclosed detainee had been moved from prison to house arrest at a hotel in Tehran. Subsequently, the White House confirmed the transition to house arrest for five US citizens – Namazi, Tahbaz, Sharghi, and two other Americans who wished to remain unidentified.
According to Iran's permanent mission to the UN, Tehran and Washington reached an agreement for a five-for-five prisoner swap. This accord entails the release of five prisoners in exchange for Iran gaining access to $6 billion that had been frozen in South Korean bank accounts due to US sanctions. The mission stated that Iranian assets would be unblocked and transferred to Qatar. As reported by the Tasnim news agency, the agreement involves converting the funds from South Korean won to euros, after which they can be transferred to a bank account in Qatar.
Following its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the US imposed sanctions on Tehran, prohibiting eight major purchasers of Iranian oil, including South Korea, from procuring energy resources from the Islamic republic. Iranian authorities later revealed that around $7 billion owed to Tehran for past oil shipments had been frozen by Seoul at the request of the US Treasury Department. Although South Korea had deposited the funds intended for oil payments in its banks, they could not be transferred to Iran due to the US sanctions regime.
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Based on materials from TASS