US and Iran Still Sparring Over Prisoner Swap

Iran and the United States continued to spar over whether or not the two nations are prepared to swap prisoners without reaching overall agreement on a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – the JCPOA. Over the weekend, Tehran’s assistant foreign minister tweeted that the agreement to swap prisoners could be executed “today,” an assessment Washington said was “outrageous.” Iran is holding many dual nationals picked up by security services and charged with espionage – a routine many see as collecting the citizens of other nations for the specific purpose of using them in exchanges. On Saturday, an Iranian official scolded the US and UK to stop linking the swap to the nuclear accord. Negotiations in Vienna have come to a halt after six fruitless sessions as both sides await the formation of a new government headed by newly elected hard-line president Ebrahim Raisi.