Tehran - (AFP) - Iran announced Sunday that everything is "ready" to carry out a prisoner exchange with the United States , which could take place quickly if Washington so desires.

"In the past days, we reached an agreement on a prisoner exchange between Iran and the United States. If everything goes well from the American side, I think we can see that in the near future," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said in a televised interview.

He added, "For us, everything is ready. The American side is working on its latest technical preparations."

There are at least three Iranian-Americans detained in Iran, including businessman Siamak Namazi, who spoke in an unprecedented interview with CNN from his cell in Evin prison in Tehran.

For its part, the Iranian judiciary indicated in August that "dozens" of Iranian nationals had been arrested in the United States, including Reza Sarhangpour and Kambiz Attar Kashani, on charges of "diverting the course of US sanctions" imposed on Tehran.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, and the exchange agreement was "indirectly signed and ratified" between the Iranians and the Americans in March 2022, as Amir Abdullahian explained, describing it as "purely human."

In the interview with CNN, which was broadcast on March 9, Namazi appealed to US President Joe Biden "to give the release of innocent Americans priority over politics."

This businessman was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. His father, Muhammad Baqer Namazi, 85, was sentenced to the same penalty, and was exempted in 2020 from serving his sentence, and he was able to leave Iran in October 2022.

Among the other prisoners, the Iranian-American investor Imad Sharqi, who was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of espionage, according to Iranian media, and Murad Tahbaz, an American of Iranian origin who also holds British citizenship, was arrested in January 2018 and sentenced to ten years in prison for "conspiring with America."

There are at least 16 Western passport holders detained in Iran.

Tehran refuses to recognize dual nationality and announced last January the execution of the British-Iranian Ali Reza Akbari, accused of spying for Britain, which he has always denied.