Iran is cancelling planned prisoner swaps with the United States over what is sees as “breaches” by the White House in its efforts to free Americans detained in Iran, reported Reuters.
News that Iran was backing out of the planned prisoner exchanges came from a report by the semi-official Nour News agency who spoke to a source within the government on Tuesday.
The Iranian regime had been in contact with the Biden administration about exchanging Americans jailed in Iran for Iranians held in American jails and in other countries over violations of US sanctions.
“With the continuing Biden administration … breaches, there is no incentive on Iran’s part to continue this process and therefore the exchanges issue in its current form will be completely removed from its agenda,” the source said in an interview with Nour News.
In July, Tehran announced that a prisoner exchange agreement had been made with Washington. However, the White House denied the claim.
According to the Center for Human Rights in Iran, at least 15 dual nationals, including Iranian-Americans, are currently serving time in Iranian prisons, many of them charged with espionage.
Human rights activists have charged that Iran is using the arrests to extort other countries.