Biden admin won't accept 'partial deal' with Iran on release of American prisoners, U.S. envoy says
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden's envoy to Iran says he does not want a repeat of a 2016 prisoner swap deal that freed a group of Americans without securing the release of an Iranian-American businessman held in Tehran.
The Biden administration is insisting on the release of all Americans unjustly imprisoned in Iran and will not accept a "partial deal" in its negotiations with Tehran over detained citizens, according to the U.S. envoy, Robert Malley.
"I worked on this issue in the Obama administration when we secured the release of a number of our unjustly detained citizens, but not all," Malley told a group of former prisoners and families of foreigners who are currently behind bars in Iran.
A group of five Americans were released from Iran in January 2016 at the same time that U.S. authorities granted clemency to seven Iranians who had been convicted or faced charges in U.S. courts. But Iranian-American Siamak Namazi was not part of the exchange and remains in a Tehran prison.
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