Iran Signs Prisoner Swap With US To Repatriate Its Citizens

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh. (Twitter/@IRIMFA_EN)

JAKARTA - Iran has signaled its readiness for a prisoner swap with the United States, as the West examines Tehran's written response on a 'final draft' to revive the 2015 Nuclear Deal.

State-related news outlet Fars quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as reporting that Tehran was ready to carry out a prisoner swap with Washington.

"We are ready for the implementation of the agreement, so that innocent Iranian citizens imprisoned in the United States can be released, immediately returned to the arms of their families," the spokesman said as quoted by The National News from Fars Aug. 18.

The remarks come as the European Union and US study Iran's written response, to the so-called "final draft" of the new agreement, to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Some extraordinary problems remain, one of Iran's top negotiators' advisers said on Wednesday.

An agreement made in 2015 allowed UN nuclear inspectors to enter Iran's nuclear sites in exchange for Washington lifting stringent trade sanctions.

However, Iran complains that foreign investment is slow to return after 2015, despite the deal. Analysts say that's partly because of the sanctions still in place on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The IRGC runs a network of companies in Iran. Meanwhile, some foreign investors are not convinced that the risk of unintentional sanctions violations against the force, which was listed as a terrorist organization by the US Government under Donald Trump, continues today.

Critics of the Iranian regime claim that Tehran is holding people as "hostages" to gain leverage in nuclear talks. Iran is said to have imprisoned scores of dual nationals, often on trumped-up charges of espionage.