TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday vehemently dismissed as untrue a report that Iran has released two U.S. spies in a prisoner exchange deal. 

“This report is 100 percent false,” Zarif said in an interview with ICANA.

Zarif said the Iranian Foreign Ministry has already proposed the idea of exchange of all Iranian and American prisoners in all parts of the world.

However, he added, “The issue of exchange of two arrested spies with the U.S. is a complete lie.”

“We have put forward a suggestion for the comprehensive exchange of prisoners of the two sides. We have inmates held in various countries on the U.S.’s orders, and have prisoners inside the U.S. as well. We have people in the United States of America that have even served their illegal sentences, but the Americans prevent their return to Iran,” the minister said, according to Tasnim.

In June, Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari returned home after his release from a U.S. prison.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry later denied reports about a prisoner swap in the release of Asgari, saying the scientist was freed after being acquitted of charges.

PA/PA