Iran govt to seek release of Iranian prisoners in US

Iran said Tuesday it was seeking the release of all Iranian prisoners held in the U.S. amid talks in Vienna meant to bring Tehran and Washington back into the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei did not offer details on how many Iranians are held in the U.S. but said “their number is bigger than that of American prisoners in Iran.”

In 2019, a prisoner exchange saw Iran free a Chinese-American scholar from Princeton who had been held for three years on widely criticized espionage charges.

At the time, Tehran said American authorities were holding about 20 Iranian nationals in jail.

Rabiei also commented on the leak of a recording of Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which he made a number of candid remarks about Iran's foreign policy.

The cabinet spokesman described the leak as "a conspiracy against the government" and said Iran's president had ordered the intelligence ministry to find out who was responsible for it.