NOURNEWS- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said that the prisoner swap that took place between Iran and the US was purely done on humanitarian grounds, adding that Tehran and Washington could have conducted their prisoner swap sooner if the American officials had not made miscalculations.
The Iranian president, who is in New York to take part in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, made the remarks while addressing senior American media managers on Monday after Iran and the US implemented a Doha-mediated prisoner swap deal.
"If the US had not left the negotiating table with miscalculation and had not pinned hope on last year's riots, this humanitarian action could have taken place much sooner," President Raisi said.
"Definitely, any step that is taken [by the United States] to fulfil their commitments will be confidence-building for us," he added.
After two years of high-stakes negotiations, Iran and the US agreed to free prisoners as part of a deal that also included the release of billions of Iranian assets illegally frozen in South Korea.
The funds, owed to Iran for exports of oil and gas, had been frozen in South Korean bank accounts since 2018 after the administration of then-President Donald Trump pulled the US from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, further aggravating tensions with Tehran.
On Monday, Iran and the US freed 10 prisoners -- five Iranians and five Americans -- after the US government unblocked the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds held in South Korea.
NOURNEWS