Majed Al-Ansari, an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, details the behind-the-scenes diplomacy that led to the prisoner deal, and why Doha believes there now exists a “platform for dialogue” between Iran and the United States.
NEW YORK — The diplomatic breakthrough that brought five wrongfully detained Americans home from Iran followed two years of quiet negotiations led by Qatar that could pave the way for future dialogue, a senior Qatari official told Al-Monitor.
On Tuesday, a US government plane carrying a group of Americans, including longtime prisoners Siamak Namazi, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Shargi, arrived in the United States as part of an agreement that also saw Tehran gain access to billions in frozen funds to be used for non-sanctioned purposes.
“The beginning [of the negotiations] was very difficult,” Majed Al-Ansari, an adviser to the Qatari prime minister, said during the Al-Monitor/Semafor Middle East Global Summit in New York on Wednesday.
“The discussion was always one-sided,” he said. “It was very difficult to get points across.”
“You had two sides completely at odds with each other. There was very little trust remaining after the pulling out of the JCPOA and the escalation that Iran took,” said Al-Ansari, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the multilateral nuclear pact in 2018 and re-imposed crippling economic sanctions that prompted Iran to begin violating its obligations under the deal. The Biden administration came into office pledging to re-enter the JCPOA and secure the release of a handful of Americans detained in the country on baseless spying charges.
Al-Ansari, also the spokesperson of the Qatari Foreign Ministry, said Doha passed messages on both issues following “countless meetings” with officials from Iran and the United States.
The primary Qatari mediators were the prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and Qatari Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Mohammed Al-Khulaifi. For two days in June 2022, Qatari officials shuttled between hotels in Doha for meetings with Iranian and US officials, but the talks aimed at resurrecting the nuclear accord ended without a breakthrough.
“At one point, it was very clear that there was an appetite for a deal from both sides,” Al-Ansari said. “This is roughly less than two years ago when we started having indirect talks in Doha first and then direct talks later on.”
Figuring out the “nitty gritty of the current deal and the financial side, that happened just a few months ago,” he added.
The prisoner talks have largely been conducted through third parties, including Oman, Qatar and the United Kingdom, because of the Iranian refusal to deal directly with the Americans. Rob Malley, then-special envoy for Iran, also met in New York with Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani.
Talks over a potential prisoner swap faced multiple hurdles along the way. Al-Ansari described Iran’s supply of armed drones to Russia, which were used in lethal attacks in Ukraine, as a “major issue for the American side that halted the negotiations for a long time.”
“Anybody who’s dealt with these kinds of negotiations knows that at the last minute, you always have these hiccups that come up, and this was not an exception,” Al-Ansari said.
Iran’s detention of two more US prisoners this year, whose identities have been kept private at their families’ request, also held up the agreement, other sources familiar with the negotiations said. Another setback came after a drone attack by an Iran-backed militia killed a US contractor in northeastern Syria, setting off a round of tit-for-tat attacks in March.
Oman, an experienced mediator between Iran and the West whose involvement was key to sealing the 2015 nuclear deal, has also played a key role in facilitating wider, parallel discussions aimed at de-escalating tensions between the two sides.
The Gulf country served as a venue for indirect talks between Iranians and US officials, most recently in May, which on the US side were led by White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk.
The following month, Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi told Al-Monitor that a deal to free the Americans was close, but the technical aspects had to be worked out. On Wednesday, he said the recent detainee exchange “sends the right signals in both directions that both countries are serious.”
“We will hope to see more such steps taking place in the weeks [and] months to come. We will continue engagement,” Albusaidi said during the Al-Monitor/Semafor summit.
Under the prisoner agreement, the US government granted clemency to five Iranians jailed or awaiting trial in the United States for nonviolent crimes, whose identities Al-Monitor first reported.
As another condition of the prisoner exchange, Iran gained limited access to $6 billion in its oil revenue that was frozen in South Korea due to US sanctions. Over the past month, the funds were wired to a restricted account in Qatar, where US officials say Iran can use them for food, medicine, medical devices and agricultural products under strict US supervision.
Responding to criticism that the funds could be misused, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said Wednesday the administration has “high confidence” in the financial arrangement.
“We have put together a set of ironclad, very restrictive arrangements with financial institutions in Qatar, where the money will be metered out for humanitarian purposes,” Leaf said at the Al-Monitor/Semafor event.
Even if the Qatari channel works perfectly, critics say the release of Iranian financial assets frees up Iran’s domestic budget to be spent funding terrorism across the Middle East, bolstering its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or stepping up nuclear enrichment.
Al-Ansari responded by saying Doha has “guarantees in place” to ensure the funds aren’t diverted, and is working with the US Treasury Department to ensure the humanitarian channel succeeds so that it can be used “a platform or a driver for furthering negotiations.”
“It’s our reputation of stake,” he added. “This is why we have a vested interest to make sure that this process is as transparent and safe as possible.”
Al-Ansari also expressed optimism that the prisoner exchange could be a “platform for dialogue” between Iran and the United States, each of which have taken steps to de-escalate in recent months.
Iran’s militias in Syria and Iraq have halted attacks on US forces, and the country has slowed the pace at which it is accumulating highly enriched uranium. But in a worrisome development, Tehran recently said it would bar certain International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from monitoring its nuclear program.
Experts say that while a resumption of nuclear talks is possible, the Biden administration has little appetite for signing what would be a politically costly deal with Iran before the 2024 election. Asked about the future of nuclear diplomacy, Leaf said she had “no news” to offer.
She added, “As far as the chatter out there that there is some sort of deal in the offing, there really isn’t.”
Source: Al Monitor
