US President Donald Trump thanked Saturday, December 7, Iran for a "Very fair negotiation" after an exchange of prisoners between the two enemy countries. "You see, we can reach an agreement together", congratulated the US president on Twitter. These statements confirm the existence of an exchange of prisoners between the two countries in which an Iranian detainee in the United States, Massoud Soleimani, and an American imprisoned in Iran, Xiyue Wang, were released on Saturday.
Relations between Tehran and Washington, which have not maintained diplomatic ties for nearly 40 years, are in a new crisis since the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal.
"I'm delighted that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr. Xiyue Wang are reuniting with their families soon", the Iranian diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter. US President Donald Trump, for his part, said in a statement about the release of Mr. Wang. "After being detained for more than three years in Iran, Xiyue Wang is on her way to the United States", he said.
" Back home "
Mohammad Javad Zariff addressed "A big thank you to all those involved, especially to the Swiss government", who represents US interests in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries since 1980. He also shared photos showing him in the company of Mr. Soleimani on a plane and wrote " back home ". The date of taking these photos was not indicated.
Mr. Soleimani was "Released a few moments after one year of illegal detention and handed over to Iranian officials in Switzerland"said Iran's state agency Irna.
Massoud Soleimani, a professor at Tarbiat Moddares University in Tehran and a specialist in stem cells, went to the United States on 22 October 2018 for research work. He was arrested on arrival at the Chicago airport and transferred to an Atlanta jail, according to Irna.
Xiyue Wang, a Sino-US researcher, was serving a 10-year prison sentence for spying in Iran. A Ph.D. student in Princeton University in the United States, Mr. Wang was conducting research on the Qajar dynasty in Iran, where he was imprisoned in August 2016.
Espionage charges that have multiplied
In a statement, the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo thanked Saturday the Swiss government, and said "Pleased that Tehran has been constructive in this case". "We continue to call for the release of all US nationals unjustly detained in Iran", he added.
Arrests of foreigners in Iran, including binational ones, often accused of espionage, have increased since the withdrawal of the United States from the Iranian nuclear deal and the reinstatement of harsh American sanctions against Tehran. Among them, the American Michael White, sentenced in March to more than ten years in prison, Irano-British Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe jailed since 2016 for sedition, and Iran-Americans, including businessman Siamak Namazi and his father Mohammad Bagher Namazi, who have been serving a ten-year sentence since 2015 and " spying ".
The Iranian authorities also arrested French researcher Roland Marchal last June at the same time as his Iranian-French colleague Fariba Adelkhah, a specialist in Shiite Islam, whose detention was confirmed by Tehran in July.
In October, the Australians Jolie King and Mark Firkin, who had been arrested for " spying " had been released in a likely prisoner exchange with Iranian student Reza Dehbashi. The number of Iranians detained abroad is not known.
