The United States (US) and Iran have reached a deal for five American detainees to leave Iran, in exchange for the U.S. giving access to $6 billion of oil revenue and freeing a number of jailed Iranians.
New York Times reported that the U.S. inmates were released from prison and moved into house arrest, according to the lawyer for one of the prisoners, where they will stay “for several weeks.”
The freed prisoners were named as Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz and an unidentified fourth American.
According to AFP, they were moved from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison to an undisclosed house, with a separate report saying that a fifth American, a woman, was moved in recent weeks to house arrest.
NYT quoted several sources as saying that it is the first step in the agreement which was reached after over two years of “quiet negotiations.”
“The move by Iran of the American hostages from Evin Prison to house arrest is an important development. While I hope this will be the first step to their ultimate release, this is at best the beginning of the end and nothing more,” said Jared Genser, the lawyer of Namazi.
The White House is yet to react on the release of the imprisoned Americans, and Forbes has reached out for comment.
