Iran ready for full prisoner swap, ‘ball is in the U.S.’ court’: Zarif

Listen to this article:

FILE PHOTO: Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a news conference, a day ahead of the first meeting of the new Syrian Constitutional Committee at the Untied Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday the Islamic republic is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, tweeting: “The ball is in the US’ court”.

“After getting our hostage back this week, fully ready for comprehensive prisoner exchange,” Zarif said.

The United States and Iran on Saturday swapped prisoners – American graduate student Xiyue Wang, detained for three years on spying charges, and imprisoned Iranian stem-cell researcher Massoud Soleimani, accused of sanction violations – in a rare act of cooperation between two longtime foes.

Separately, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said Iran had always sought an “all for all release” with the United States.

“We are ready to cooperate to return all Iranians who are being held unjustly in America,” Rabiei was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying.

Rabiei said efforts to swap prisoners were not linked to any other U.S.-Iranian talks, which would only be possible if Washington lifted sanctions and returned to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Array
(
    [post_type] => post
    [post_status] => publish
    [orderby] => date
    [order] => DESC
    [update_post_term_cache] => 
    [update_post_meta_cache] => 
    [cache_results] => 
    [category__in] => 1
    [posts_per_page] => 4
    [offset] => 0
    [no_found_rows] => 1
    [date_query] => Array
        (
            [0] => Array
                (
                    [after] => Array
                        (
                            [year] => 2023
                            [month] => 12
                            [day] => 29
                        )

                    [inclusive] => 1
                )

        )

)

No Posts found for specific category