Iran and US agree to prisoner swap: Reports
Iran and the US have agreed to a prisoner swap, a pro-Iranian Lebanese TV channel reported on Sunday, citing unnamed Iranian officials.
According to Al-Mayadeen, Iran is set to free four Americans accused of spying in exchange for four Iranians held in the United States and the release of $7bn in frozen Iranian funds.
Iranian state television, citing an official, later confirmed the report.
However, the US explicitly denied any agreement had been made.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price told Reuters: "Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true".
"As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran. We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families."
Iran and world powers are holding talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord that Washington abandoned three years ago.
Iranian officials told Reuters last month that an interim deal could be a way to gain time for a lasting settlement that involved unfreezing Iranian funds blocked under US sanctions.
Tehran and the powers have been meeting in Vienna since early April to work on steps that must be taken, touching on US sanctions and Iran's alleged breaches of the 2015 deal, to bring Tehran and Washington back into full compliance with the accord.
Iran says $20bn of its oil revenue has been frozen in countries like South Korea, Iraq and China under the US sanctions regime since 2018.
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