Kerry: Nuclear deal ‘accelerated’ Iran prisoner swap
Exchange was unrelated to nuclear talks, says US diplomat, but ‘relationships forged’ in the latter helped broker the former
VIENNA, Austria — US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday the closer ties built with Iran while negotiating a nuclear deal had accelerated efforts to win the release of five American prisoners.
US officials had previously insisted the backchannel diplomacy with Iran to arrange Saturday’s prisoner swap was a separate effort from the international drive to end the nuclear standoff.
But, announcing that the five “should be on their way home to their families before long” Kerry admitted that one issue had fed into the other.
“While the two tracks of negotiations were not directly related — and they were not — there is no question the pace and the progress of the humanitarian talks accelerated in light of the relationships forged and the diplomatic channels unlocked over the course of the nuclear talks,” Kerry said.
“Certainly in the time since we’ve reached an agreement last July there was a significant pickup in that dialogue.”
Earlier, Iranian and US officials had announced that four US citizens — including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian — had been released in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting.
A fifth American was also released in a separate process, a US official said.
