Tehran, Iran – Iran and the US have efficiently accomplished a prisoner change two years within the making, which Tehran is hailing as a diplomatic victory.

After arduous oblique negotiations mediated by Qatar and Oman, Tehran and Washington on Monday exchanged 5 American and 5 Iranian prisoners in an airport in Doha.

Iran additionally confirmed entry to $6bn of its personal cash that had been frozen for years in South Korea in compliance with unilateral US sanctions on Iran that had been imposed after Washington in 2018 withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers.

The cash was first exchanged into euros and was transferred to banks in Qatar from Switzerland after the US issued a waiver clearing the transaction.

Of the 5 prisoners held in Iran, the identities of three are recognized. Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharghi and Morah Tahbaz had been all charged with espionage-related offences.

Within the face of US rhetoric that known as them “hostages” who had been wrongfully detained, Tehran had maintained its stance of branding them “spies” that labored to undermine Iran.

However, many of the Iranian prisoners within the US had been arrested on fees of violating sanctions, prompting Tehran to say they had been “businessmen” who had been unjustly held for allegedly undermining legal guidelines that Washington has “illegally” imposed after reneging on the landmark nuclear accord.

Whatever the rhetoric surrounding the prisoners, politicians and media shops in Iran – in contrast to a few of their US counterparts – principally welcomed the change as an achievement.

“America Kneels Earlier than Iran” was the headline chosen by Keyhan, the ultraconservative newspaper whose editor-in-chief is immediately appointed by Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

It wrote that the cash in South Korea remained blocked on account of “passive diplomacy” exercised by the administration of former reasonable President Hassan Rouhani.

“Finishing the method of transferring Iran’s blocked reserves in South Korea signifies one other web page within the sleek diplomatic success of [President Ebrahim Raisi’s] authorities, and an undesirable and unconscious confession by the Westerners, and particularly the US, of their defeat in opposition to the desire of the Iranian nation,” it mentioned.

The reformist Shargh newspaper led with Historic Monday and referred to the change as a “constructive diplomatic step”.

The conservative Quds newspaper used the headline “Diplomatic Hat-Trick” on its Tuesday entrance web page, to have a good time the mix of the change, Raisi’s journey to New York to take part within the United Nations Common Meeting, and welcoming Saudi soccer groups and famous person Cristiano Ronald in Tehran.

In New York earlier than his UNGA speech scheduled for late Tuesday, the Iranian president prompt the prisoner change – which Iran has repeatedly known as a “humanitarian” concern – may have taken place sooner if the US acted in a different way.

“The US pursued negotiations once more after the venture of riots failed,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run IRNA, in reference to protests that fashioned throughout Iran from September 22 after the demise of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Iran has maintained that the US, together with plenty of different Western and regional powers, incited and supported the unrest.

After the prisoner change on Monday, the Iranian overseas ministry launched an announcement saying Tehran wouldn’t overlook previous grievances, together with ongoing US sanctions.

“Our folks will always remember that even on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US regime on the time prevented our nation from accessing its personal funds in South Korea, ignoring a well being emergency and humanitarian issues, and dismissing repeated calls by the UN secretary-general and human rights officers,” it mentioned.

Sophisticated Iran-US relations

Abbas Aslani, a senior fellow on the Centre for Center East Strategic Research in Tehran, believed the swap was an essential growth as a result of it displayed a diminishing position for Europe in engagement between Iran and the US.

“The timing is essential as a result of that is taking place on the anniversary of these [Mahsa Amini] protests in Iran,” he instructed Al Jazeera from Tehran.

“This someway means that their calculations have been altering in the direction of Iran,” the analyst mentioned.

“This may very well be a starting for prolonged and additional talks on nuclear negotiations, in addition to lifting the sanctions in opposition to Iran.”

However college professor and analyst Sasan Karimi discovered it unlikely that the change would result in main modifications within the fraught relationship between Tehran and Washington.

“The Biden administration has at present centered all its consideration towards the upcoming presidential elections, so it would try to guard itself from falling into uncalculated conditions,” he instructed Al Jazeera, including that restoring the nuclear deal would depend as such a scenario, particularly because the West has accused Tehran of supplying Russia with drones for the struggle in Ukraine.

He mentioned an unwritten understanding between Iran and the US geared toward decreasing tensions, which seems to be in place, is extra appropriate for Biden and higher protects him from native critics as properly.

“Due to this fact, it doesn’t seem to be the US authorities would search for extra when Iran is worried, no less than not till after the presidential elections. And different incentives like funding and enterprise are inconceivable regarding Iran, so it has achieved virtually all the things it wanted underneath the present circumstances,” Karimi mentioned.

For Iran, any tentative settlement would act as a de-escalatory measure which might not assist it overcome the present state of “securitisation” of affairs, in response to the analyst.

“What Iran must pursue is eradicating any unfavourable consideration, and defusing the securitisation initiatives which were pursued in opposition to Iran lately, particularly by Israel,” he mentioned.