Iran's top diplomat says ready for immediate prisoner swap with US

Prisoner swap is a humanitarian issue ‘unrelated to the nuclear accord’, says Iranian FM

Iran is ready to swap prisoners with the United States, Iran's foreign minister said in Germany on Saturday, adding the West would be to blame if talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal fail as Tehran is ready to reach a good agreement.

"We believe prisoner swap is a humanitarian issue ... unrelated to the nuclear accord. We can do it immediately," Hossein Amir abdollahian told a panel at the Munich Security Conference.

"If the nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers fail in Vienna, Western powers will be responsible for it because we want a good deal."

When asked whether Tehran was ready to hold direct talks with Washington, Amir abdollahian refrained from ruling it out by saying: "We need to see tangible steps of goodwill by Washington such as freeing Iran's frozen assets abroad".

Also read: Iran nuclear deal could be agreed very soon: EU official

A senior European Union official said on Friday that a US-Iranian deal to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear agreement was close but success depended on the political will of those involved.

"I expect an agreement in the coming week, the coming two weeks or so," the EU official said. "I think we have now on the table text that are very, very close to what is going to be the final agreement," the official said.

Reuters reported on Feb 17 details of a possible deal negotiated by envoys from Iran, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany, the European Union and United States.

"Most of the issues are already agreed. But as a principle in this kind of negotiations, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. So we still have...some questions, some of them rather political and difficult to agree," the official said.