White House will not comment on Iranian official’s announcement that unnamed Americans offered to swap reporter Jason Rezaian for detainees

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Unnamed Americans have contacted Iran for a deal to swap Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, convicted and jailed in Iran on spying charges, for other unspecified detainees, according to a senior Iranian official quoted on Sunday.

“Some Americans contact us sometimes, asking us to exchange him with other detainees, but the sentence has not been announced yet,” said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

In Washington, a senior White House official, asked for comment, said: “We’re not going to comment on every public remark by Iranian officials concerning our detained and missing citizens. We continue to make all efforts to bring our citizens home.”

Ejei did not specify which detainees could be under consideration nor give any other details of what the Americans could have in mind for a swap with Rezaian.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, has hinted at the possibility Rezaian could be freed in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the US. Other Iranian officials have played down the possibility.

Jason Rezaian conviction: 'outrageous injustice' at center of Iranian power struggle Read more

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that Rezaian, a California-born Iranian American, has been convicted but they have declined to announce the sentence. Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 and accused of espionage.



The case has been a sensitive issue for Washington and Iran. Iran has accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to President Obama and acting against national security. The Post has dismissed the charges as absurd. The final hearing in his trial was on 10 August.

Washington Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl has said the vague nature of an earlier announcement by Iran showed that Rezaian’s case was not just about espionage but that the reporter was a bargaining chip in a “larger game”.

Four other US citizens – American-Lebanese IT expert Nizar Zakka, US-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati, a former marine corps sergeant – are also being held in Iran. Robert Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared there in 2007.

Their cases have been raised in talks, including those between Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry when they met during the UN general assembly in New York last month. No progress was announced.