Iran and the United States have reached an agreement to exchange prisoners, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV on Sunday, adding that he hoped the exchange would take place soon. “Regarding the issue of prisoner swaps between Iran and the US we have reached an agreement in recent days and if everything goes well on the US side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in a short period,” Amirabdollahian said. “On our part, everything is ready, while the US is currently working on the final technical coordination.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Reuters on Amirabdollahian’s remarks. One of several Americans held in Iran is Siamak Namazi, a businessman with dual US-Iranian citizenship, who was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison for spying and cooperating with the US government. Emad Sharghi, an Iranian-American businessman was first arrested in 2018 when he was working for a tech investment company, is also jailed in Iran, as is Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship.

Iranian sources told Reuters that two regional countries were involved in the series of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington for the release of prisoners. For years, Tehran has sought the release of more than a dozen Iranians in the US, including seven Iranian-American dual nationals, two Iranians with permanent US residency and four Iranian citizens with no legal status in the US. The Islamic Republic, which is holding dozens of Iranian dual nationals and foreigners, has been accused by rights activists of arresting them to try to extract concessions from other countries. Iran has dismissed the charge.