Iran slams U.S. "politically-motivated" approach toward prisoner swap

TEHRAN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman chided the United States for its "politically-motivated and opportunistic" approach toward the issue of exchanging prisoners with Iran.

In an interview with semi-official Mehr news agency published on Saturday, Nasser Kanaani said that despite the agreement between the two sides on the prisoner swap, the U.S. government has not fulfilled its pledge, and conditioned the issue on other matters, including the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal, which has led to a halt in the prisoner swap process.

Kanaani stressed that Iran's approach on the prisoner swap is a humanitarian one, adding that Iran is ready to implement the agreement to help the Iranian nationals incarcerated in the United States to return to their families as soon as possible.

Kanaani said the United States has detained a number of Iranian nationals on the alleged charges of having "violated Washington's sanctions" on Tehran, which Iran considers baseless as it sees the U.S. unilateral sanctions "illegal and cruel."

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The United States, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks in August 2022.