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.
