Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh insisted Sunday that the Islamist Republic and the United States agreed to a prisoner swap deal, a day after Washington denied such an agreement had been reached.
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What is truly outrageous is that the US denies the simple fact that such a deal exists, Khatibzadeh tweeted, adding that the swap was agreed upon with the US and Britain in Vienna, outside the nuclear talks.
"Iran is ready to proceed today," he wrote.
"Outrageous"=the US denying simple fact that "there IS an agreed deal on the matter of the detainees." Even on how to announce it.
Humanitarian swap was agreed with US & UK in Vienna-separate from JCPOA- on release of 10 prisoners on all sides.
Iran is ready to proceed TODAY.
— Saeed Khatibzadeh (@SKhatibzadeh) July 18, 2021
On Saturday, the Biden administration accused Iran of an "outrageous" effort to deflect blame for the impasse in the nuclear talks and denied that any deal had been reached on a prisoner swap.
Tehran and Washington have been communicating for some time on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in US jails and other countries over violations of US sanctions and of Americans jailed in Iran.
The regime has arrested dozens of dual nationals, including several Americans, in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, tweeted that the US and Britain must stop linking a humanitarian exchange with the nuclear talks.
The talks are aimed at reviving a 2015 deal between Iran and six major powers that curbed Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting of sanctions on the regime. Former President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
Araqchi said the seventh round of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington would not resume until Iran's hardline president-elect, Ebrahim Raisi, takes office in early August. The sixth round of the talks in Vienna adjourned on June 20.
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