A senior lawmaker said prisoner swaps between Iran and the US have been done in the past, but any decision in this regard rests with Judiciary officials and the Supreme National Security Council.
Speaking to ICANA on Friday, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said the fate of Iranian nationals imprisoned in the US is of "key importance to Iran".
"In the past and at the time of sanctions [imposed before the 2015 Iran nuclear deal] some cultured and educated Iranian nationals, who tried to take action to supply the nation's demands, were incarcerated in the US while they had not done anything wrong." he said.
Boroujerdi's comments come as a report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that the White House secretly reached out to Iran to establish a direct channel to discuss exchanging prisoners.
The report says Iran did not respond to the overtures despite at least three other attempts and has refused to communicate with US officials.
The approach marked the first time since US President Donald Trump entered the White House that his administration has attempted to pull off a prisoner exchange. The US State Department has not commented specifically on the outreach to Iran. An official who has served as a contact for families of detainees at the White House National Security Council did not respond to an inquiry, WSJ reported.
Precedent for Talks
Without commenting on the report directly, Boroujerdi said that "of course, the US has some of its duel nationals imprisoned in Iran as well and seeks their freedom."
"There is precedent for negotiations and decisions regarding the exchange of Iranian-US prisoners. However, this time around too, any decisions in this regard rests with the judiciary and SNSC," he said.
Four American prisoners were released by Iran in January 2016 as part of a negotiated prisoner swap in which the United States released seven Iranian detainees. Trump was very critical of the exchange and called a $400 million cash payment to Tehran that was part of funds frozen by Washington since the 1970s a "ransom" payment.
Trump has questioned the validity of the 2015 nuclear deal, has declined to certify Iran's compliance with the provisions of the deal and has said he would terminate US sanctions relief required under the agreement unless Europe and the US Congress address what he called flaws in the accord.
