Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is seen before a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (not in image) at Kishida's office in Tokyo, Aug 7, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Monday rejected any link between the prisoner swap with the United States and the recent release of the country's frozen assets abroad, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported.

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran views the prisoner exchange with the US as a humanitarian issue, stressing that Iran deals with issues of prisoners and frozen funds separately, said the report.

On monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the prisoner swap between Tehran and Washington and the recent release of Iran's frozen assets abroad could positively impact the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal

The minister noted that the assets, newly released from the banks of the Republic of Korea (ROK), have been transferred to a European bank, with a limited part still remaining in ROK for future transactions with the East Asian state.

He added that after being converted into euro, which will take up to a few weeks, the transferred funds in Europe will be deposited into Iranian accounts in a regional country.

ALSO READ: 'Simultaneous' unfreezing of funds, Iran-US prisoner swap

On Friday, Mohammad Jamshidi, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, said in a post on X, previously known as Twitter, that simultaneously with the release of the illegally held Iranians in the US and the full transfer of frozen Iranian assets in ROK, a number of US prisoners in Iran will leave.

Iran's central bank chief Mohammad Reza Farzin confirmed the next day in a post on X the entire release of these funds, which were initially nearly $7 billion but shrank by close to $1 billion in value due to the depreciation of the won against the dollar, adding that they would eventually be transferred to accounts of six Iranian banks in Qatar.

The flags of Iran flutter in the south of the capital Tehran on July 4, 2022. (PHOTO / AFP)

Nuclear talks

On monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the prisoner swap between Tehran and Washington and the recent release of Iran's frozen assets abroad could positively impact the talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.

Kanaani made the remarks at a weekly press conference in the capital Tehran, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported.

"Although not directly related, such issues can have positive impacts on one another, and achieving progress in one can lead to breakthroughs in others," Kanaani said.

ALSO READ: Chief banker: Iran's frozen assets in ROK all released

Speaking to reporters, Kanaani expressed optimism that the country's remaining frozen assets abroad would also be soon released, adding that efforts to this end are continuing.

Elaborating on the prisoner exchange, he noted that the judicial processes for releasing the US prisoners have been gone through, and it will proceed within the framework of the agreement reached between the two sides.

He added that the agreement was reached thanks to mediating efforts made by regional states, including Qatar.

Iran signed a nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The US pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to reduce some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. No breakthrough has been achieved after the latest round of talks in August 2022.