Iranian-US Prisoner Swap Deal Awaits Transfer of Funds

 The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan sailed in the Red Sea last Tuesday (AP)
The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan sailed in the Red Sea last Tuesday (AP)
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Iranian-US Prisoner Swap Deal Awaits Transfer of Funds

 The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan sailed in the Red Sea last Tuesday (AP)
The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan sailed in the Red Sea last Tuesday (AP)

US and Iranian delegations gathered in separate hotels in Doha – “within sight of each other, but not within earshot”, to reach an agreement on a deal to release five Americans detained in Iran, CNN quoted a US official as saying.

However, the official, who is familiar with the negotiations, stressed that the on-and-off hotel meetings in the Qatari capital, which were being held for over more than a year, saw no face-to-face meetings between the US and Iranian delegations.

Qatari officials conveyed messages back and forth, CNN reported, with some of the logistical work happening in the most discreet way possible, via text thread between the Qataris and the US diplomats.

The indirect talks were part of a two-year process that led to the agreement announced this week, a potential diplomatic breakthrough between the two arch-rivals who do not directly speak to each other.

On Thursday, those intense efforts yielded the first signs of a deal, when Iran released four Americans held in the notorious Evin prison and transferred them to house arrest, with a fifth American prisoner also under home confinement.

CNN quoted well-informed sources as saying that Washington rejected overt initiatives to deal directly with Tehran on this issue.

American officials approached the negotiations on the basis that there were “no guarantees” with the Iranians. But just when things seemed to be going well, the US government began reaching out to Congress and the families of the US detainees.

On Thursday, the US source said that American officials were in direct contact with the Swiss ambassador to Iran to get an update on progress on the ground. Switzerland has been sponsoring US interests in Iran for four decades.

The path was described as a step-by-step process, and American officials stressed that the indirect negotiations were ongoing and sensitive.

One component of the deal is an expected prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran, and the other includes allowing $6 billion in Iranian funds frozen in a restricted account in South Korea to be transferred more easily for “unsanctioned trade” in goods, such as food and medicine, by moving them to restricted accounts in Qatar.

According to CNN, the sources said that the money came from oil sales that were authorized and placed in accounts set up under the Trump administration.

Sources familiar with the deal said the process of transferring the money to Qatar was likely to take between 30 and 45 days, and that the money would be moved through Switzerland before arriving in Qatar.

According to the Associated Press, the transfer process would take so long because Iran did not want to freeze assets in South Korean won, which are less convertible than euros or dollars.

US officials say that while South Korea approves of the conversion, it is worried that converting this big amount into other currencies at once would negatively affect its exchange rate and the economy.

Thus, the country is proceeding slowly, sending smaller amounts of frozen assets for eventual transfer to the central bank in Qatar.

While the Biden administration describes the process - with the ultimate goal of securing the release of Americans - as a long road, CNN quoted those sources as saying that bringing Americans home has been a priority since the beginning of Biden’s term.

However, experts in Iranian affairs criticized these allegations, accusing the Biden administration of providing billions of dollars to support Iran’s activities.

Richard Goldberg, vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said on X (formerly Twitter) that the billions of dollars were in support of a wide range of illegal activities, the completion of construction of a new, hardened underground facility, and establishment of nuclear threshold status.

For his part, Henry Rome, a researcher in Iranian affairs at The Washington Institute, said on the X platform that the deal for Iran to reduce its uranium stocks by 60 percent was a constructive step in implementing the American-Iranian understandings that were reached in Oman.

Rome expected Tehran to use the diplomatic progress to try to divert social pressure ahead of the anniversary of the outbreak of popular protests after the death of Mahsa Amini.

However, some observers believe that two main reasons could be behind this agreement. First, Iran’s attempt to avoid sanctions that could be imposed during the next meeting of the IAEA’s Board of Experts, through its “voluntary” reduction of its stockpile of enriched uranium, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Second, the unprecedented US military build-up in the Gulf waters, which was considered a “firm” message to Tehran.

On Saturday, US forces and their Western allies issued a new warning to cargo ships transiting the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far as possible from Iranian territorial waters to avoid being captured. This was considered a stark notice, amid tensions between Iran and the United States, despite the ongoing negotiations, according to the Associated Press.



Palestinians Say 100,000 Residents Trapped in Israel's North Gaza Assault

Israeli tanks take position at the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, October 15, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli tanks take position at the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, October 15, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
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Palestinians Say 100,000 Residents Trapped in Israel's North Gaza Assault

Israeli tanks take position at the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, October 15, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli tanks take position at the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Israel, October 15, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what the military said were operations to root out regrouping Hamas fighters.

The Israeli military said soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas fighters in a raid into Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital, Reuters reported.

The Gaza Strip's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the shattered coastal territory.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies.

The emergency service said its operations had ground to a halt because of the three-week-long Israeli assault back into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out viable Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.

As talks led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to broker a ceasefire resumed on Sunday after multiple abortive attempts, Egypt's president proposed an initial two-day truce to exchange four Israeli hostages of Hamas for some Palestinian prisoners, to be followed by talks within 10 days on a permanent ceasefire.

There was no public comment from Israel or Hamas, who have stuck to irreconcilable conditions for ending the war.

Gaza's war has kindled wider Middle East conflict, raising fears of global instability, with Israeli forces invading south Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocketing northern Israel in support of fellow Iran-backed militant group Hamas in Gaza.

It has also triggered rare direct clashes between Middle East arch-foes Israel and Iran. At the weekend, Israeli warplanes pounded missiles sites in Iran in retaliation for an Oct. 1 Iranian missile volley at Israel.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Monday Tehran would "use all available tools" to respond to Israel's weekend attack.

- ISRAELI RAID INTO NORTH GAZA HOSPITAL

North Gaza's three hospitals, where officials refused orders by the Israeli army to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.

At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.

On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said there was only one of roughly 70 medical staff - a paediatrician - was left at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israel "detained and expelled" the others.

The Israeli military said soldiers who raided the hospital "apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents".

North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and ushering women and children out of the area towards Gaza City and the south.

'NONSENSE TALK OF CEASEFIRE'

Only a few families headed to southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.

Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment, saying they would prefer death to displacement.

"While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of ceasefire (in Gaza), the Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people," a resident of Jabalia told Reuters by a chat app.

"(But) neither (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu nor Eiland will be able to take us out of northern Gaza."

Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel's National Security Council, was the lead author of a much-debated proposal dubbed "the generals' plan" that would see Israel rapidly clear northern Gaza of civilians before starving out surviving Hamas fighters by cutting off their water and food supplies.

This month's Israeli tank assault drew Palestinian accusations that the military has embraced Eiland's concept, which he envisaged as a short-term step to defeat Hamas in the north but which Palestinians fear is meant to clear the area for good to carve out a buffer zone for the military after the war.

The Israeli military has denied pursuing any such plan. It says its forces operate in keeping with international law and that it targets militants who hide among the civilian population which they use as human shields, a charge Hamas denies.

North Gaza was the first part of the enclave to be hammered by Israel's ground offensive into the territory after Hamas' cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, with intensive bombing largely flattening towns like Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya.

Nevertheless, Hamas-led fighters continue to attack Israeli forces in hit-and-run operations with anti-tank rockets, mortar salvoes and bombs planted in buildings, streets and other areas where they anticipate Israeli forces taking up positions.

The war erupted after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year, taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.

The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza has reached 43,020, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Monday, with the densely populated enclave widely reduced to rubble.