Iran released five Americans as part of a prisoner-swap deal Washington hopes will ease tension in the Middle East and could eventually lead to a resumption of talks to reverse Tehran’s nuclear work.
The detainees left Tehran on Monday around 4:30 p.m. local time on a Qatari plane headed for Doha, Iranian state media said. They are expected to then be handed over to US officials. Five Iranians imprisoned in America are also set to be freed.
The moves follow months of mostly secret diplomacy between Tehran and Washington, the talks conducted via interlocutors such as Oman and Qatar. Under their agreement, the US has allowed Iran to access $6 billion of oil money frozen in South Korean banks due to sanctions. The US and allies including Israel worry Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon, which could trigger an arms race in the region. Tehran has always said its atomic program is purely for peaceful purposes.
In August, Iran moved the Americans out of prison to house arrest. The Biden administration argued the deal was the only way to get the US citizens out and the oil revenues would be only used for humanitarian goods and medicine, though Iran has said it can spend them as it wishes.The US acknowledges it won’t be viable to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, which set bounds on Tehran’s uranium enrichment but was abandoned by President Donald Trump in 2018.
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