The White House on Tuesday denied it had held “any discussion” with Iran about a possible prisoner swap, rejecting an earlier claim by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“We have not entered into any discussion with Iran about an exchange,” National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said.
In an interview on state TV on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said that talks about exchanging prisoners with the US were under way when he was asked about the fate of three American hikers detained in Iran.
“They have arrested our citizens for nothing ... this is very bad ... now there are talks whether it is possible to do an exchange” of prisoners, Iran’s leader said.
But Hammer denied talks were under way, and he and other US officials said reports of Ahmadinejad’s comments were “fragmentary.”
“We have made clear that we would like the cases of all our missing and detained American citizens to be resolved,” he said. “If President Ahmadinejad’s comments suggest that they are prepared to resolve these cases, we would welcome that step.”
“But we have not entered into any discussion with Iran about an exchange. As we have indicated publicly, if Iran has questions about its citizens in US custody, we are prepared to answer them,” he said.
Iran is holding a number of US citizens in custody, including three American hikers — Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer — arrested after wandering over the Iraq border into Iranian territory.
Separately, the Iranian defense minister said yesterday Tehran had successfully launched a new rocket carrying a mouse, turtle and worms into space for research purposes.
State TV broadcast images of the launch of the Kavoshgar-3, or Explorer-3, rocket yesterday. State TV also showed officials putting a mouse, two turtles and about a dozen creatures that looked like worms inside a capsule placed in the rocket before it blast off.
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