Washington and Iran confirm exchange of detained nationals
AN IRANIAN held in the US and an American held in Iran have been freed, the two sides said yesterday, in an apparent prisoner swap, despite heightened tensions between the countries.
Tehran announced the release of Massoud Soleimani, the Iranian scientist, from the United States shortly before Washington declared that American researcher Xiyue Wang was also returning home.
“Glad that Prof Massoud Soleimani and Mr Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly,” Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posted on Twitter.
“Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government,” which has looked after US interests in Iran in the absence of any diplomatic ties, Zarif said.
In a statement issued in Washington, US President Donald Trump said: “After more than three years of being held prisoner in Iran, Xiyue Wang is returning to the United States.”
A statement on the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website said that Wang had been “freed on Islamic clemency” and handed over to Swiss officials in order to be returned to America. Wang, a Chinese-born American, was serving 10 years on espionage charges in prison in Iran. A
‘Glad that Prof Massoud Soleimani and Mr Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly’
doctoral candidate in history at Princeton University, he had been researching Iran’s Qajar dynasty when he was imprisoned in August 2016.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA said Soleimani had been “freed moments ago after one year of illegal detention and was handed over to Iranian officials in Switzerland”.
Soleimani, a professor and senior stem cell researcher at Tehran’s Tarbiat
Modares University, was arrested on arrival at Chicago airport in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones, according to Iranian media. “Going home,” Zarif said in another tweet.
The Twitter post featured photos of the foreign minister alongside Soleimani outside and inside a plane bearing an Iranian flag. It was unclear when the picture was taken.