We have kept Congress extensively informed from the outset of this process – long before today – and we will continue to do so, including with additional already scheduled briefings this week.” While this is a step in the process, no individuals have been or will be released into US custody this week. “This remains a sensitive and ongoing process. “As we have said from the outset, what is being pursued here is an arrangement wherein we secure the release of five wrongfully held Americans,” Watson said. The fifth detainee was already under house arrest.Īdrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the national security council, described the waiver as a “procedural step in an ongoing process to ensure Iranian funds can move from one restricted account to another and remain restricted to humanitarian trade”.

Under the deal, the money, frozen revenues from past Iranian oil sales, will be sent to Qatar’s central bank, from where it can be disbursed for the purchase of humanitarian goods for Iran.Īs part of the preparation for the deal, four of the US nationals held by Iran were transferred from jail to house arrest last month. The waiver allowing international banks to transfer the Iranian funds was signed by the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Friday, and Congress was informed on Monday.

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