Biden reaches $6B deal to free Americans in exchange for jailed Iranians: report
Fox News
President Biden reportedly secured a $6 billion deal to free Americans in exchange for jailed Iranians.
The New York Times first reported about the prisoner swap agreement Thursday. Once five Americans imprisoned in Iran are allowed to return to the United States, the Biden administration is said to have agreed to release a handful of Iranian nationals serving prison sentences for violating sanctions on Iran.
Sources told the Times the United States also agreed to unfreeze nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, transferring the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar.
The American prisoners include Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, who the U.S. government were all wrongfully detained on bogus spying charges. The names of the other two were being withheld by their families, but one is said to be a scientist, the other a businessman.
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According to the Times, Namazi, Sharghi, Tahbaz and a fourth American were transferred from the notorious Evin Prison to a hotel in the Iranian capital of Tehran, where they will be detained for another few weeks before being allowed to board a plane.
The fifth person, an American woman with dual Iranian citizenship, is said to have been released on house arrest earlier this year.