TEHRAN- The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson noted on Monday that Washington provided Tehran with the assurance it needs to proceed with a recent deal to swap detainees and release frozen Iranian assets overseas.

“The talks took nearly two years and the process of the release of prisoners and Iran’s financial sources will take place within the framework of the reached agreement,” Nasser Kanaani told a weekly news conference.

“The U.S. has given a guarantee for the implementation of that deal,” he continued.

He noted that Iran, under the deal, has full access to its own sources and can buy all goods and what it needs using them, and the remaining will be turned into a deposit for which an interest rate will be paid.

Kanaani said that the efforts to unfreeze Iranian assets are not directly related to the talks to resurrect the 2015 nuclear deal, but that “issues can affect each other.”

The spokesperson reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to continuing the negotiations to lift anti-Iran sanctions and restore the rights of the Iranian people.

“We have never been after an interim or little-for-little agreement”

Also, the Iranian Foreign Minister denied that there was any relation between the release of Iran’s blocked assets overseas and the prisoner swap with the U.S.

Amir Abdollahian stated during a news conference on Monday that preparations to unlock Iran’s assets abroad have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. and Iranian prisoner swap, which is purely a humanitarian matter.

He pointed out that there are two distinct objectives regarding the prisoner swap and the release of Iran’s assets in the deal between Iran and the U.S., which was mediated by a third nation.

The senior diplomat noted that Iran and the U.S. have been communicating indirectly for months, emphasizing that “we have never been after an interim or little-for-little agreement.”

Amir Abdollahian stated that Iran’s assets in South Korea had been blocked as a result of Washington’s “cruel order,” adding that Tehran will be able to use the funds to purchase commodities not subject to sanctions because the assets in Korean banks had been moved to a European nation.

He pointed out that it takes days or weeks for the money to be converted into euros and then transferred into Iran’s bank account in a neighboring nation.

Iran FM to visit Saudi soon

In other parts of his speech, Kanaani announced that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian will soon visit Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi Foreign Minister and other high-ranking Saudi officials.

The most recent regional and global developments would be discussed, he said, as well as bilateral relations.

Regarding the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Amir Abdollahian made a statement and mentioned that Iran’s ambassador to Riyadh will formally assume his post during his future trip to Saudi Arabia.

“The ambassador of Saudi Arabia will also arrive in Tehran within the next days,” he added. 

Earlier this year, an agreement mediated by China allowed Riyadh and Tehran to resume diplomatic relations.

Following attacks on its embassies in Tehran and Mashhad during demonstrations over the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Arabia broke ties with Iran in 2016.

In March, the two nations agreed to mend their seven-year split by signing a normalization agreement.

Iran sends specialists to Afghanistan to resolve water dispute

He also said that a group of Iranian scientists and officials traveled to Afghanistan’s Deh Rawood water monitoring station for the first time in more than 50 years to confirm Kabul’s allegations of water scarcity.

Iran and Afghanistan are at odds over the Helmand water supply, which starts in the Hindu Kush Mountains west of Kabul and runs southwest until it empties out into the Hamoun wetlands, located in Iran’s arid Sistan-Baluchestan Province.

Iran maintains that Afghanistan is impeding the supply of water, but the Taliban claim that there is insufficient water to flow into Iran.

The delegation has returned to Iran, and Kanaani said that their reports on the trip are being reviewed.

“Terrorist attack in Shiraz”

Kanaani also denounced the tragic terrorist assault that took place late on Sunday at the Shah Cheragh shrine in the province of Fars, in southcentral Iran.

“The terrorists are trying to take revenge against the Iranian people for the heavy blows that the brave Iranian forces inflicted on their evil and dirty family in the past years,” he added.