The United States will agree to transfer six billion dollars from funds frozen under sanctions to Iran. This will clear the way for the release of five Americans imprisoned in Tehran, according to CBS News. US citizens were transferred from prison to house arrest last month.
As reported by the American station on Monday, citing his sources in the administration, the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken He was supposed to sign the documents last week. He thus consented to the transfer of USD 6 billion frozen by sanctions from an account in South Korea to the account of the central bank Qatarfrom which they will go to Iran. The documents were signed a month after Tehran and Washington reached an agreement on the matter, notes CBS News. As part of it, five Iranian citizens are also to be released from American prisons.
Information obtained by AP shows that the administration will make a decision by Monday Joe Biden Even members of Congress didn’t know. An official quoted by CBS News confirmed that the decision was officially announced that day. “We are seeking an agreement to release five illegally imprisoned Americans. This process is ongoing and the matter is sensitive. We have taken another step in this process, but no person has been or will be released from custody this week,” she said in a statement quoted by CBS News Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
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American prisoners in Iran
The website reminds that in August, four out of five US citizens imprisoned in Iran were released from prison and placed under house arrest. The fifth American was previously under house arrest.
One of the prisoners is Siamak Namazi, who has American and Iranian citizenship. He was arrested in 2015 during a business trip and then sentenced to 10 years in prison for “collaboration with an enemy state.” He has always denied the accusations, and Washington accused Iran of wrongly detaining him. In 2016, Namazi’s father, now 86, was lured to Iran. The man was imprisoned for two years and banned from leaving the country. He was ultimately allowed to leave the country in October 2022 to seek treatment abroad.
Other hostages released along with Namazi include businessmen Emad Sharghii and Morad Tahbaz, who had been imprisoned for more than five years. They claim they never did anything wrong and were held up as an ace in Tehran’s hole during international negotiations.
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