Washington Made No Concessions To Make Tehran Release US Citizen Wang - Official

The United States did not make any concessions to the Iranian authorities to make them release US citizen Xiyue Wang, who was detained in Iran on spying charges in 2016, a senior official with the US presidential administration told reporters on Saturday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2019) The United States did not make any concessions to the Iranian authorities to make them release US citizen Xiyue Wang, who was detained in Iran on spying charges in 2016, a senior official with the US presidential administration told reporters on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that Tehran and Washington were conducting an exchange of Wang, a Chinese-American Princeton scholar, and US-held Iranian scientist Massoud Soleimani. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has confirmed that Wang was released by Tehran.

"There has been absolutely no payments of cash, or lifting of sanctions, or any sort of concessions or ransom ... That may be one of the reasons why it has taken some time," the official stated.

He confirmed that Soleimani was freed, while stressing that it was not a "blind" prisoner exchange case. The official noted that the case could be rather considered as mutual humanitarian measures by the two countries, adding that the US citizen's release was "an extraordinary good outcome to the United States."

"He [Wang] was not a spy," the official said, adding that the US citizen was held in Iranian prison unjustly.

Wang was convicted on espionage charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran in 2017. Soleimani, a stem cell expert, was arrested in 2018 at Chicago airport for allegedly trying to export biological materials to Iran in violation of US sanctions.