Iran transfers five Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest in step toward deal for full release

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Iran has moved five Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest in exchange for billions of dollars frozen in South Korea, US and Iranian officials said Thursday, as part of a tentative deal that follows months of heightened tensions between the two countries.

Iranian officials at the United Nations told The Associated Press that the prisoner transfer marked “a significant initial step” in the implementation of the agreement, which is still being negotiated and could eventually lead to the full release of the Americans.

Iran acknowledged that the deal involves $6 billion to $7 billion that were frozen as a result of sanctions. Iranian officials said the money would be transferred to Qatar before being sent on to Iran if the agreement goes through.

The final transfer of the money—and the release of the five detainees—is expected in the next month or so due to the complicated nature of the financial transactions, officials said.

“My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare and the nightmare that their families have experienced,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Washington, adding that more work would be necessary to free the five.

State Department officials spoke to the prisoners on Thursday, he said.

The deal unfolded amid a major American military buildup in the Persian Gulf, with the possibility of US troops boarding and guarding commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of all oil shipments pass.

The agreement is bound to open US President Joe Biden to fresh criticism from Republicans and others that his administration is helping to boost the Iranian economy at a time when Iran poses a growing threat to US troops and Mideast allies.

US-based lawyer Jared Genser, who economists to avoid the word “deflation” when referring to price pressures. Discussions of sensitive topics such as private sector reform have been scrubbed from social media platforms, and authorities this week told Internet firms to deal quickly with defamatory comments targeting companies online.

At the same time, Biden’s remarks contained factual inaccuracies and overstated some of China’s problems. While China’s population shrunk for the first time in six decades last year, the Asian giant still had 876 million people of working age versus 280 million people 60 years or older, according to official statistics. China’s economy is on track to grow by 5.2 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists in July, even after weak consumption and a property market slump. By comparison, the US economy is forecast to grow 1.6 percent this year, according to economists. Although China’s annual economic growth has slowed significantly from the breakneck pace of above 10 percent seen in the 2000s, authorities have said they want “high quality” development in a pivot away from an infrastructure and property-reliant growth model that fueled high debt levels. That’s weighed on short-term growth, but may mean more sustainable development.

China’s official urban jobless rate has hovered around 5.2 percent in recent months, compared with the 6.4 percent jobless rate recorded in the Euro zone in June. Youth unemployment in China, though, is at a record high of more than 20 percent. Bloomberg News represents one of the prisoners, said the five will likely be held at a hotel under guard. There are “simply no guarantees about what happens from here,” he said.

Neda Sharghi, whose brother, Emad Sharghi, is among the prisoners, said in a statement that her family “has faith in the work that President Biden and government officials have undertaken to bring our families home.”

Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, described the negotiations for the release as “ongoing” and delicate.”

“While this is an encouraging step, these US citizens...should have never been detained in the first place,” she said in a statement.

It remains unclear how many IranianAmericans are held by Tehran, which does not recognize dual citizenship. AP