Exclusive: Qatar to host Iran-US prisoner exchange, foot bill for asset conversion
After more than a year of indirect talks, Iran and the United States have agreed on a new prisoner swap. The deal entails
Iran’s release of five Iranian-Americans held on security-related charges in exchange for the freeing of four Iranians detained by the US. Washington has also committed to allowing approximately 6B USD worth of Iranian assets held in South Korean banks to be made accessible to Tehran.
Informed sources have told Amwaj.media that the Iranian-Americans have been taken to a hotel, where they will remain in house arrest until the swap. The exchange is expected to take place next month. The detainees are staying in separate rooms on a secured floor and can be visited by immediate family. They have also been given mobile phones with Internet access, with the ability to follow the news. Of note, the lawyer of Iranian-American business consultant Siamak Namazi—the prisoner who has been held the longest in Tehran—has
stated that “at least four” of the five detainees will stay at the hotel.
The details of the arrangement
Speaking on condition of anonymity, senior diplomatic and government sources in the region have described the Iran-US deal as the outcome of tough negotiations involving a “mediation process” that took more than a year.
Amwaj.media has learned that
Iran’s assets in South Korea will be transferred to Switzerland, where around 8T KRW will be converted to euros. It is unclear whether the money will first need to be exchanged into US dollars prior to being converted to euros. The
euros will subsequently be sent to two designated accounts in two Qatari banks, with Iran being granted full access to the financial resources for specific non-sanctionable transactions. The latter
includes humanitarian trade and medical imports.
Detailing the mechanism that has been agreed, informed high-ranking sources in the region explained that the money will be moved out of South Korea, exchanged in Switzerland, and then transferred to Qatar in multiple tranches.
The currency conversion and money transfer process is slated to take four to six weeks to complete. Subsequently, Tehran and Washington will release the respective groups of detainees.
Unlike past Iran-US swaps—where detainees were either flown to Oman, Switzerland or the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—the prisoner exchange will this time take place in Doha. Notably,
Qatar’s role in facilitating the swap also entails footing the bill for costs associated with converting the South Korean wons to euros.
The amount that Doha has committed to fund the currency conversion is unclear. But the tab is expected to be significant—likely running into millions of dollars. This element to the equation, along with Qatar’s existing banking infrastructure and expertise necessary to oversee Iranian spending, contributed to Qatar’s centrality in the implementation of the swap arrangement.
Bickering over wons in Tehran
The deal carries no financial cost for the US as the released assets belong to Iran, and third countries will fund the logistics of moving the money. However, even prior to the implementation of the swap, rival factions in Tehran are bickering over the exercise.
Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin, who was appointed to his position amid the crash of the Iranian rial last December, on Aug. 12
congratulated the “foreign exchange diplomacy team” for securing the asset release. However, he also found it “necessary to emphasize” that
Iran’s assets in South Korea—previously amounting to “nearly 7B USD”—in recent years lost some 1B USD in value in dollar terms.
Farzin stated that
since the money was held in the South Korean national currency, Iran has lost out on the won’s depreciation against the greenback. He further pointed out that
no interest has been earned while the money has been frozen in South Korea. In this vein, Farzin underscored that whatever financial resources in Qatar that “six Iranian banks” may not use for non-sanctionable trade will accrue interest. Of further note, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor
without going into detail charged that other Iranian assets abroad will also be released.
Farzin’s comments were promptly picked by government-run media.
Outlets controlled by the Ebrahim Raisi administration blamed the previous Hassan Rouhani administration for not converting the assets in South Korea to stronger currencies when it supposedly had the chance. In particular, Abdolreza Hemmati—Rouhani’s CBI governor and the sole moderate candidate in the 2021 presidential elections—has been singled out as a target of criticism.
Pro-reform Jamaran daily
hit back at the sniping by government media, saying that
revenues from oil exports to South Korea were accumulated due to conditions set by former US president Donald Trump (2017-21) prior to his May 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. At that point in time, the outlet argued,
Iran could either stop making use of the remaining “half-open window” to sell oil, or maintain exports—noting that the Rouhani government opted for the latter. Jamaran further charged that
restrictions imposed by Washington made it impossible to convert the money to other currencies as “Korean wons in large amounts must first be converted to dollars.” When Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, the money—held in wons—was frozen.
Hemmati himself also
entered the fray, lambasting the Raisi administration for “depriving the country of 72B USD of oil revenues in two years by delaying the implementation of the [deal to revive the nuclear] agreement.” After taking office in Jan. 2021, the Joe Biden administration pursued talks with Iran to revive the Barack Obama-era nuclear deal. However, the outlines of an accord were not ready until Aug. 2022, when Tehran is said to have walked away from the table. In the aftermath of Iran’s deadly crackdown on anti-establishment protests which erupted in Sept. 2022 and rising military cooperation with Russia, Washington stated that it was no longer interested in returning to the nuclear deal. Against this backdrop, Hemmati added that the 1B USD depreciation of Iran’s assets in South Korea took place under the incumbent government, concluding that the Raisi administration’s actions have cost Iran a total of 73B USD.
After more than a year of indirect talks, Iran and the United States have agreed on a new prisoner swap. The deal entails Iran’s release of five Iranian-Americans held on security-related charges in exchange for the freeing of four Iranians detained by the US. Washington has also committed to...
amwaj.media
Good insight into the Iran-USA prisoner swap deal.
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