On 17 August, Tehran expressed its readiness for the implementation of a prison swap deal with the US, warning Washington against tying the complications of the swap to other bilateral issues.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani stressed Tehran’s commitment to moving forward with the deal, calling on the US to fulfill its end of the swap.

“The Islamic Republic has, through various channels, repeatedly announced its readiness to the American side to address the issue of the prisoners regardless of the JCPOA,” the spokesman asserted, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He added that the US must release jailed Iranian citizens without additional conditions and independently of the nuclear deal.

Such disagreements over prisoner exchanges are frequent, with Iran repeatedly urging Washington to release Iranian nationals that were detained for baseless crimes.

This comes during efforts from both sides to revive the JCPOA, after former president Donald Trump left the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions to assert “maximum pressure.”

In August 2021, a prisoner exchange deal with the US collapsed when, at the last moment, Washington breached the terms of the agreement that had been brokered by the European Union.

Nournews agency cited an unnamed official as saying: “With the continuing breaches by the Biden administration, there is no incentive on Iran’s part to continue this process and therefore the exchange issue in its current form will be completely removed from its agenda.”

Despite these issues, back in March, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh disclosed that Iran and the US have made significant progress on negotiations over a potential prisoner exchange.

The last prisoner exchange deal between Tehran and Washington took place in June 2020, when Iran freed Michael White, a former US soldier who was serving a 13-year sentence for insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and posting private information online.

In return, Washington set free Iranian doctor Majid Taheri, who had been detained for 16 months for allegedly violating US sanctions against Iran.