U.S. Reportedly Strikes Prisoner Swap Deal With Iran And Agrees To Unfreeze $6 Billion In Iranian Assets

Topline

The Biden Administration has agreed to free five Iranian citizens detained in the U.S. and issue a blanket waiver to allow international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money without fear of U.S. sanctions in exchange for Iranian officials releasing five U.S. citizens being held in Iran, the Associated Press reported.

Key Facts

The Americans being freed are Siamak Namazi, an oil executive first detained in 2015 on a business trip to Iran; Emad Shargi, who was detained in 2018 without an explanation while traveling in Iran with his wife; Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American conservationist who also holds British citizenship; and two others—one man and one woman—who asked that their identity remain private, according to the AP.

The waiver will allow European and Asian financial institutions—specifically those in South Korea, Germany, Ireland, Qatar and Switzerland—to convert Iranian money that is frozen in South Korea without violating U.S. sanctions and transfer it to Qatar’s central bank, where it will be held for Iran to solely use for the purchase of humanitarian goods the U.S. government approves of, according to the AP.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved this deal late last week, but the State Department did not notify Congress until Monday, according to the AP, which reportedly obtained a copy of the notification.

The Biden Administration held that all the freed Americans were being unjustly detained.

What We Don’t Know

The identities of the Iranian prisoners are unclear.

Key Background

U.S. and Iranian officials have been negotiating this deal for months, ABC News reported. Amid negotiations, the U.S. citizens in Iran were allowed to leave the prisons they were being held at and were put into house arrest in August. The AP reported that the frozen assets being released were a critical element in the deal. The U.S. has imposed economic sanctions to restrict Iranian economic activity with the U.S. and its allies in various capacities going all the way back to 1979, according to the State Department. Those restrictions, which are meant to punish one of the U.S.’ greatest geopolitical foes, intensified under the Trump Administration. The sanctions directly led to the $6 billion being frozen in South Korea.