NEW YORK — Iran’s top diplomat on Wednesday made public an offer to the U.S. government for a prisoner swap that he said he made six months ago.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Asia Society that Iran has not yet received a response from the Trump administration. “If they tell you anything else they’re lying,” he said.
The U.S. State Department made no mention of a prisoner swap in a statement which said: “The Iranian regime can demonstrate its seriousness regarding consular issues, including Iranians who have been indicted or convicted of criminal violations of U.S. sanctions laws, by releasing innocent U.S. persons immediately.”
Zarif didn’t specify who Iran might trade, though he mentioned the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for nearly three years.
On the other side, he cited U.S. extradition warrants against an Iranian man with a heart condition held in Germany for trying to buy spare parts for civilian airplanes, and against an Iranian woman imprisoned in Australia for three years who was the translator in the purchase of equipment for Iranian broadcasting. He did not name either of them.
As foreign minister, Zarif said, he can only involve himself on humanitarian grounds and where there is a possibility of a prisoner exchange, which he did once with the United States.
“We believe their charges are phony,” he said of Iranians held in the U.S. “The United States believes the charges against these people in Iran are phony.”
“And I put this offer on the table publicly now: Exchange them,” he said. “Let’s discuss them. Let’s have an exchange. I’m ready to do it, and I have authority to do it.”
