Iran and the United States have just completed a prisoner swap. Iran is returning 5 prisoners who were arrested on charges of espionage. The United States is returning 5 prisoners accused of being Iranian agents, along with $6 billion in assets that the US had sanctions on. 2 of the prisoners the United States released have returned to Iran, while the other 3 decided to not return. 2 of those 3 decided to stay in the United States. The United States froze $6bn of Iran’s assets in a South Korean account. Iran claimed that the return of the 5 captive Americans was “purely a humanitarian action” The 5 prisoners returned to the United States with open arms after the years of brutality they had to go through. Joe Biden thanked all of the allies who helped secure the prisoners’ return, such as Qatar, who played a huge role in the exchange. Biden also warned Americans of traveling to Iran and said that the US could not guarantee their freedom if they were detained.
The United States got some criticism for this exchange from Republicans and Democrats. Many of them think that this exchange could lead to further detentions. While Biden has said that freeing Americans detained abroad is one of his biggest focuses, it also comes at a cost. With every trade we are making to get back our citizens, we are giving up assets that could be very important to us. We are losing out on valuable information because we are sending these assets away. Saving American lives is the top priority, but we must realize what cost it comes at. We are also teaching countries that we are willing to trade if our citizens are detained. This means that a foreign country could hold an American citizen hostage until we were willing to give them something that they wanted in return. It is very similar to what happened with Brittney Griner and Russia. Russia held her on a very minuscule charge and forced us to trade with them to get Griner back. While protecting American lives is the number one priority, there needs to be more thought about what it will cost us.
This affects international law as well as international economics. This trade required a lot of moving parts and had many different countries involved. Qatar was required to mediate the trade and make sure everything happened smoothly. Without their interference, this trade may not have taken place. Also, the exchange of $6 billion in assets affects Iran’s economy greatly. By hitting those two pillars of international relations, the countries involved can grow and expand their relationship in other areas as well. A lot of countries do trade and exchanges, but making sure that they can progress quickly and smoothly creates a much better relationship with those countries.