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Two of the five Iranians who have been released from prison in the United States as part of a prisoner swap deal between Tehran and Washington have left the Qatari capital of Doha and are en route to Tehran.
The two Iranians heading home are Mehrdad Moein Ansari and Reza Sarhangpour.
According to reports, all the five Iranians are now released.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kan’ani told his weekly presser on Monday that two of the detainees will be back home while two would stay in the US at their request. Another Iranian would join his family in a third country.
Meanwhile, five US detainees, who left Tehran aboard a Qatari plane, landed in Doha on Monday and are scheduled to depart for the US.
Following the swap of prisoners, the United States imposed sanctions on former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and on the country’s Intelligence Ministry, the US Treasury Department’s website showed.
Even so, senior officials of US President Joe Biden’s administration said the door for diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program was not entirely shut.
“If we see an opportunity, we will explore it but right now, I’ve really nothing to talk about,” a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier on Monday, Secretary General of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi announced the release of five Iranians held in US prisons for years, saying two of them will arrive in Tehran via the Qatari capital.
“After a successful team effort, five innocent Iranian compatriots in American prisons will be free today and two of them will enter Tehran via Doha,” Gharibabadi wrote on his X account.
“The High Council for Human Rights, alongside the government and the judiciary, will remain determined to uphold the rights of Iranians abroad,” he added.
The prisoner swap between Iran and the US was carried out thanks to a Doha-brokered deal between the two countries that also unfroze $6 billion of Tehran’s funds.
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mohammad Reza Farzin on Monday confirmed that the Islamic Republic’s funds totaling $6 billion have been transferred to Qatari banks.
He announced the release of Iran’s blocked financial assets in South Korea and said 5.573 billion euros had been deposited into the accounts of six Iranian banks in Qatar’s Al Ahli and Al Dukhan banks.
