Iran: Republicans wanted to delay prisoner swap

The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said that Republicans in the United States had contacted Iran and asked it to push back the prisoner swap between the two countries until the US presidential election.

In January, Iran released four Iranian-Americans held in the country for various charges in exchange for seven individuals held in the United States for violating sanctions laws. The prisoner swap was the result of yearslong secret negotiations between Iran and the Obama administration that was reportedly accelerated after the landmark nuclear deal.