Iran and the US apply “hostage diplomacy”: the most notorious prisoner exchanges in recent years

The governments of U.S It is Will They carried out an exchange of prisoners this Monday, the 18th, thus writing a new chapter of the so-called “hostage diplomacy”.

TO LOOK: American freed by Iran: “They stole 2,898 days from me and supplanted them with torment”

With the emirate of Qatar as mediator, washington It is Tehran They agreed to release five citizens of the other country they were holding captive and, in the Iranian case, to unfreeze funds that had been blocked in South Korea.

Thus, the five Americans and two of their families disembarked in Doha, the capital of Qatar, coming from Tehran. While two other Iranians also arrived in Qatar and the other three released decided not to return to their home country.

It was vital to this agreement that U.S agreed to release around 6 billion dollars that South Korea had to pay since 2019 to Iran for the purchase of oil, but which had been frozen due to sanctions imposed against the Islamic republic.

The money, which was previously exchanged from won to euros, was deposited in special accounts in Qatar that can only be used by Iran to purchase humanitarian goods, such as food or medicine.

Iranian citizens released by the United States, Reza Sargangpour Kafrani (right) and Mehrdad Moein Ansari, are photographed at Doha airport in Qatar. (Nour News via AP/)

Prisoner exchanges have been a common practice among governments around the world for decades. On occasions like the current one, the two countries seek to unblock long-frozen relations or show signs of trust amid diplomatic rapprochement.

In other cases, such as in war contexts, it occurs as part of a temporary truce between both sides and in a third scenario it can occur between two enemy governments that have prominent figures from the rival country in custody.

In that regard, U.S It is a major protagonist in this so-called “hostage diplomacy”, since the North American country has participated in more than 100 of these exchanges since 1977, when it created the International Prisoner Transfer Program (ITRP).

The mechanism is the responsibility of the Departments of State and Justice. And this, moreover, cannot be considered a manual, as each case has specific criteria. These particularities make it a tool that generates intense debates between those who support the release of a citizen at all costs and those who believe that a person’s freedom should not imply a greater risk for society as a whole.

The most recent case of this type of practice was that involving American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner and arms dealer Viktor Bout. The exchange of both at the end of 2022 was interpreted by many as blackmail from the Russian government to Washington.

Later, in March of this year, Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia and accused of espionage. It later emerged that Moscow was asking – and continues to ask – to exchange the reporter for Sergey Cherkasov, an alleged Russian intelligence officer accused in the US of trying to infiltrate the International Criminal Court.

On the occasion, the analyst and director of the Institute of European Studies at the University of Piura, Enrique Banús, highlighted The trade that this practice was becoming more frequent in Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine.

“This type of arrests already seems to be a tradition in Russia. “Someone is arrested, accused of espionage without further support and a prisoner exchange is negotiated.”assured the expert, who also highlighted how this type of exchange has represented a form of acquiring funds in war contexts for different governments.

“When I lived in Germany, during the Cold War, there was a ministry that had funds set aside to pay political prisoners in other Germany (East) and they were controlled only by a committee of Parliament. If there were spies, these prisoners were exchanged for spies, otherwise these funds were used. This has a very long tradition, but the Russians are being very shameless”, he stated.

Source: Elcomercio