Kanaani also said that the issue of prisoners’ exchange has nothing to do with the conclusion of the talks aiming at the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal…reports Asian Lite News
Iran renews readiness for prisoners’ exchange with the US, said Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani.
“We have already announced our readiness to exchange prisoners, and we still have this readiness,” Kanaani was quoted by the ISNA.
“Negotiations have been conducted in different ways and both sides have made necessary agreements, and now it is the decision of the American government to implement this agreement or not,” he said.
Kanaani also said that the issue of prisoners’ exchange has nothing to do with the conclusion of the talks aiming at the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that the exchange of prisoners with the United States had been discussed on the sidelines of nuclear talks in Vienna.
US and Afghanistan carry out prisoner exchange
The United States and the Taliban have completed a prisoner swap, Afghanistan’s foreign minister said Monday, with an American navy veteran traded for a key ally.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said Mark Frerichs — kidnapped in 2020 — was exchanged for Bashar Noorzai, a warlord and Taliban associate imprisoned for 17 years in the United States for heroin smuggling.
“Today, Mark Frerichs was handed over to the US and Hajji Bashar was handed over to us at Kabul airport,” Muttaqi told reporters in Kabul.
He said the exchange happened “after long negotiations,” adding that Frerichs was given to a US delegation.
The US Navy veteran was working in Afghanistan as a civil engineer on construction projects when he was kidnapped, the US State Department said.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Monday that Noorzai held no official position in the Taliban but “provided strong support including weapons” as the hard-line Islamist movement emerged in the 1990s.