Iran releases 5 prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Months ago, Iran had anticipated getting as much as $7 billion.
56% : AdvertisementFour American captives, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, flew home from Iran at the time, and several Iranians in the U.S. won their freedom.
55% : Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
53% : A Qatar Airways plane landed Monday morning at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, according to flight-tracking data analyzed by the AP.
50% : "Five imprisoned citizens who were in Iran will be given to the U.S. side.
49% : In this photo released on Aug. 11, 2022, by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani speaks in Tehran, Iran.
48% : Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP, FileDUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran flew out of Tehran on Monday, officials said.Flight-tracking data analyzed by the AP showed a Qatar Airways flight take off at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport, which has been used for exchanges in the past.
47% : That same day, then-President Barack Obama's administration airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran.
44% : Iranian state media soon after said the flight had left Tehran.
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% : 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% : The cash represents money South Korea owed Iran -- but had not yet paid -- for oil purchased before the U.S. imposed sanctions on such transactions in 2019.
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 program 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.
37% : Two people, including a senior Biden administration official, said that the prisoners had left Tehran.
36% : The announcement by Kanaani comes weeks after Iran said that five Iranian-Americans had been transferred from prison to house arrest as part of a confidence-building move.
36% : From the following year on, a series of attacks and ship seizures attributed to Iran have raised tensions.
35% : Iran and the U.S. have a history of prisoner swaps dating back to the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover and hostage crisis following the Islamic Revolution.
33% : Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran's nuclear program.
29% : Iran has taken steps in recent months to settle some issues with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
28% : The deal has also already opened U.S. 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 American troops and Mideast allies.
24% : Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and the U.S. intelligence community has kept its assessment that Iran is not pursuing an atomic bomb.
21% : 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.
14% : The West accuses Iran of using foreign prisoners -- including those with dual nationality -- as bargaining chips, an allegation Tehran rejects.
7% : 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.___Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.