A prisoner swap between the United States and Iran was expected to take place on Monday, according to a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, after two years of high-stakes negotiations.
As part of the deal, the United States had agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue and dismiss federal charges against several Iranians accused of violating U.S. sanctions.
The announcement at a news conference in Tehran from the spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, came as President Biden and Ebrahim Raisi, IranтАЩs president, were to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders on Tuesday. The spokesmanтАЩs remarks were published on the website of the Iranian news agency ISNA.
Mr. Kanaani said five Iranians, several of whom are permanent residents of the United States, were expected to be released. It was not immediately clear exactly how many of the Iranians would return to Iran, although Mr. Kanaani said it would be two.
Five American prisoners some of whom had been held for years in Evin Prison, one of the most notorious detention centers in Iran, were expected to be released as part of the deal.
The Americans тАФ Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morad Tahbaz, as well as two others who have not been named at their familiesтАЩ request тАФ had been jailed on unsubstantiated charges of spying.
They had spent the last several weeks in Iran in home detention after Tehran agreed to release them from prison while the $6 billion transfer, a complicated process, was completed.
