The talks between Iran and the P4+1 which is held with indirect US presence in Vienna have entered a critical phase where European parties and Washington have to take their political decision on whether they want a deal with Iran.
In the meantime, Western officials and media have raised the issue of prisoners exchange with Iran and try to link it to the talks in Vienna.
The talks on exchange of prisoners have always been followed up independently in recent years. For example, seven Iranian and four American prisoners were exchanged in 2016, when the then representative of US President Brett McGurk was in charge of prisoners swap talks.
Even when the former US President Donald Trump who ceased US participation in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran announced readiness to exchange prisoners.
This indicated that releasing Iranians jailed in the US or European countries under the pretext of violating US sanctions had practically nothing to do with the nuclear deal or the related talks.
The Western countries have always tried to political leverage the issue of prisoners exchange and link it to the nuclear talks or, in case of the UK, to their arrears to Iran.
Iran and the UK has reached to an agreement on the payment of the UK’s debts, but British officials have always refused to implement the deal and have conditioned it to release of prisoners in Iran.
Many officials from various countries have mediated in the last several months, but the US administration has tried to make a political achievement from prisoners issue because it is faced with domestic opposition to rejoining the nuclear deal.
The prisoners exchange could happen any time regardless of what happens in Vienna, but any deal on the issue depends on Washington’s decision to avoid politicization of the exchange.
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