Five prisoners sought by US in swap with Iran arrive in Qatar

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Months ago, Iran had anticipated getting as much as seven billion.
55% : Iran says the programme is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
52% : "Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the US side.
44% : Five prisoners sought by the US in a prisoner swap with Iran including British-American-Iranian Morad Tahbaz have landed in Qatar, officials said.
44% : Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions.
42% : Roxanne Tahbaz holds a picture of her father Morad Tahbaz who was jailed in Iran, during a protest outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London on April 13, 2022 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)In a statement issued on his behalf after landing, Mr Namazi said: "I would not be free today, if it wasn't for all of you who didn't allow the world to forget me.""Thank you for being my voice when I could not speak for myself and for making sure I was heard when I mustered the strength to scream from behind the impenetrable walls of Evin Prison," Mr Namazi said.
42% : Iranian government officials have largely concurred with that explanation, though some hard-liners have insisted, without providing evidence, that there would be no restrictions on how Tehran spends the money.
41% : The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran -- but had not yet paid -- for oil purchased before the US imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
40% : "Today, five innocent Americans who were imprisoned in Iran are finally coming home," US President Joe Biden said in a statement released as the plane carrying the group from Tehran landed in Doha, Qatar.
40% : The two that Nour News said were in Doha were Mehrdad Ansari, an Iranian sentenced to 63 months in prison in 2021 for obtaining equipment that could be used in missiles, electronic warfare, nuclear weapons and other military gear, and Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, an Iranian charged in 2021 over allegedly unlawfully exporting laboratory equipment to Iran.
40% : While the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran now has enough enriched uranium to produce "several" bombs, months more would likely be needed to build a weapon and potentially miniaturize it to put it on a missile -- if Iran decided to pursue one.
39% : But the advances in its programme have led to fears of a wider regional conflagration as Israel, itself a nuclear power, has said it would not allow Tehran to develop the bomb.
36% : "Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the US and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran's nuclear programme.
36% : Iran and the US have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 US Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution.
36% : From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions.
31% : In addition to the five who were freed, two US family members flew out of Tehran, according to a senior Biden administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity when the exchange was ongoing.
29% : Iran has taken steps in recent months to settle some issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
28% : In his statement, Mr Biden urged Americans not to travel to Iran, and he demanded more information on what happened to Bob Levinson, an American who went missing several years ago.
26% : The deal has already opened Mr Biden to fresh criticism from Republicans and others who say that the administration is helping boost the Iranian economy at a time when Iran poses a growing threat to American troops and Middle East allies.
23% : Iran maintains its nuclear programme is peaceful, and the US intelligence community has kept its assessment that Iran is not pursuing an atomic bomb.
22% : US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked the Qataris, Swiss, South Koreans and Omanis for helping in the exchange, and pledged in a statement to keep pressing for "accountability for Iran and other regimes for the cruel practice of wrongful detention".Iranians Reza Sarhangpour Kafrani, right, and Mehrdad Moein Ansari pose at Doha airport in Qatar after being released from prison in the US in a prisoner swap with Iran (Nour News via AP/PA)The five prisoners Iran has said it seeks are mostly held over allegedly trying to export banned material to Iran, such as dual use electronics that can be used by a military.
19% : Iran also supplies Russia with the bomb-carrying drones Moscow uses to target sites in Ukraine in its war on Kyiv, which remains another major dispute between Tehran and Washington.
14% : The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners -- including those with dual nationality -- as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.

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