Iran-US prisoner swap moves closer after assets unfrozen

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

53% : "Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the US side reciprocally, based on their will.
53% : Four American captives, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, flew home from Iran at the time, and several Iranians in the US won their freedom.
49% : That money was then sent to Qatar, an interlocutor between Tehran and Washington in the negotiations.
46% : A total of 6 billion dollars (£4.84bn) of Iranian assets once frozen in South Korea is now in Qatar, a key element for a planned swap of prisoners - including a British citizen - between Tehran and the US, an Iranian official said.
45% : Their most recent major exchange happened in 2016, when Iran came to a deal with world powers to restrict its nuclear programme in return for an easing of sanctions.
45% : That same day, President Barack Obama's administration airlifted 400 million dollars in cash to Tehran.
44% : Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani speaks in Tehran (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)The announcement by Mr Kanaani comes weeks after Iran said that five Iranian-Americans are under house arrest as part of a confidence-building move while Seoul allowed the frozen assets, held in South Korean currency, to be converted into euros.
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.
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 miniaturise it to put it on a missile -- if Iran decided to pursue one.
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.
33% : The US intelligence community has maintained its assessment that Iran is not pursuing an atomic bomb.
31% : The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran -- but had not yet paid -- for oil purchased before the Trump administration imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
30% : The five prisoners Iran has said it seeks are mostly held over allegedly trying to export material to Iran.
28% : Iran has received international criticism over its targeting of people with dual citizenship.
22% : The deal has opened President Joe 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 US troops and Middle East allies.
13% : The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.

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