Under the deal, Iran will release five US citizens and the US will release five Iranians once Tehran gains access to the funds frozen by South Korea.
Some $6 billion of Iranian assets once frozen in South Korea is in Qatar, an Iranian official said ahead of a highly-anticipated and planned prisoner swap between Tehran and the United States.
“We hope to have total access to the Iranian assets today,” said Nasser Kanani, referring to $6 billion in Iranian funds to be unfrozen as Iran releases five US citizens. His comments during a news conference were aired on state television on Monday, but the feed cut immediately after his remarks without explanation.
He said the cash sought for the exchange was now in Qatar.
Both Iranian and US officials had been notified by Qatar that the money had been transferred from Switzerland into the Gulf Arab nation, AFP quoted a source as saying.
Kanaani made his comments during a news conference aired on state television, but the feed cut immediately after his remarks without explanation.
“We witnessed freezing of parts Iranian assets in some countries including South Korea,” Kanaani said. “As part of our policy of active foreign diplomacy, fortunately, Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea were released and God willing today the assets will start to be fully controlled by the government and the nation.”
“The issue of swap of prisoners will be done on this day and five prisoners, citizens of the Islamic Republic, will be released from the prisons in the US,” Kanaani added.
“Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the US side reciprocally, based on their will. We expect these two issues to fully take place based on the agreement.”
He said two of the Iranian prisoners will stay in the US.
Iranian news agencies immediately afterwards reported, quoting Kanaani, that the prisoner swap would be done on Monday. There was no other information immediately released by the agencies and US officials did not acknowledge the comments.
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