Tehran released five Americans in exchange for unfrozen assets and freedom for five Iranians

“Currency of exchange,” the expression says what it means. Five Americans released from Iranian custody on Monday are heading to the United States. They left Tehran aboard a Qatari government plane bound for Doha on Monday afternoon and then flew to the Washington, D.C. area to reunite with their families.

Emad Sharghi, Morad Tahbaz and Siamak Namazi, as well as two other Iranian-Americans whose names were not disclosed, were considered by Washington to be wrongly detained and “hostages” of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Namazi has been in custody since 2015, Sharghi and Tahbaz for more than five years.

Siamak Namazi’s mother, Effie Namazi, and Morad Tahbaz’s wife, Vida Tahbaz, who were banned from leaving Iran, were also flying from Iran to Doha. In a statement, President Joe Biden celebrated the release of the five Americans “after years of agony, uncertainty and suffering.”

$6 billion in assets

The outlines of an agreement began to emerge in Doha about seven months ago, after years of indirect negotiations. Washington and Tehran still do not maintain formal diplomatic relations. In his statement, Biden thanked “domestic and foreign partners for their tireless efforts to help us achieve this outcome, including the governments of Qatar, Oman, Switzerland and South Korea.”

When the negotiations were already coming to an end, around August 10, the Americans were placed under house arrest. The Swiss Ambassador to Iran visited them regularly to ensure they had good living conditions.

$6 billion (€5.57 billion) was frozen by the United States in South Korea, and the funds were transferred from Switzerland to bank accounts in Qatar. Iran confirmed the transfer: “Yesterday we received an official letter from Qatar saying that the accounts of six Iranian banks have been activated,” the Iranian central bank governor said on state television.

“Today, the equivalent of €5,573,492,000 was credited to Iranian bank accounts in two Qatari banks,” Mohammadreza Farzin said. He added that his country intends to sue South Korea for preventing Tehran from accessing the funds and seek damages for their depreciation. The amount frozen in 2018 was 7 billion.

“Only small fish”

Funds transferred to accounts in Qatar can only be used by Iran to purchase humanitarian aid, and Washington has warned that each transaction will be monitored by the US Treasury Department. The agreement also provides for the release of five Iranians detained by the United States, two of whom have served most of their sentences, including Kambiz Attar Kashani, who was sentenced last February to sixteen months in prison for violating American sanctions against Tehran on behalf of Iran. Central bank. The other three were awaiting trial.

According to the Iranian Foreign Ministry, two Iranians plan to return to Iran, one is expected to emigrate to another country, and the last two will remain in the United States. According to US officials, they do not pose a threat to national security. “The Iranians being released in this operation are small fry,” said a senior State Department official. “There are very big fish that the Iranians want to take out of our justice system, which they have been asking for for some time. We’ve been having difficult, principled negotiations for a long time, and at the end of that process they haven’t gotten anyone they’re really interested in.”