The Biden administration has reportedly reached a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, to free five imprisoned U.S. citizens in exchange for freeing convicted Iranian criminals and the unfreezing billions of dollars of Iran’s oil revenue that has been locked up due to sanctions.
The New York Times reported that the five Iranian American dual citizens, who have been wrongfully imprisoned on trumped-up spying charges for the last two years, have been released into house arrest at a hotel that is being guarded by Iranian officials, according to Jared Genser, one of the lawyers for the imprisoned Americans.
“While I hope this will be the first step to their ultimate release, this is at best the beginning of the end and nothing more,” Genser said. “But there are simply no guarantees about what happens from here.”
The Biden administration will release several Iranian nationals that have been convicted of evading U.S. sanctions and will transfer “nearly $6 billion of Iran’s assets in South Korea, putting the funds into an account in the central bank of Qatar,” the report added.
Qatar will control the money and will only let Iran access the funds to pay for “humanitarian purchases,” the sources claimed to the Times.
The Americans will only be allowed to leave once the funds have been transferred to the Qatari account. They will be flown to Qatar’s capital city of Doha since the country was key in negotiating the arrangement.
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President Joe Biden faced intense backlash last year after agreeing to free convicted Russian terrorist Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA player Brittney Griner.
Bout was convicted on terrorism charges back in 2011 for trying to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for the purpose of shooting down U.S. Military helicopters.
This report has been updated to include additional information.