State Department Denies Proposing Prisoner Exchange for American Marine Held in Iran - East Idaho News
News

State Department Denies Proposing Prisoner Exchange for American Marine Held in Iran

  Published at

Getty 123014 StateDepartment?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1419985407739PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The State Department denied on Tuesday that the United States had offered to exchange Iranian prisoners in the U.S. for an American marine who has been detained in Iran since 2011.

Reports had indicated that the U.S. had offered an exchange of prisoners in order to return Amir Hekmati, an American marine, to the U.S. “Those reports are not accurate,” State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke said Tuesday. “The U.S. government has not proposed a prisoner exchange for Mr. Hekmati.”

Rathke did say that the U.S. continued to “call on the Iranian government to release Amir Hekmati immediately, as well as detained U.S. citizens Saeed Abidini and Jason Rezaian, and to assist us in locating Robert Levinson, so that they all can be returned to their families as soon as possible.”


Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION