<p class="title">Iran said Monday it was open to more prisoner swaps with the US while stressing an exchange at the weekend was not the result of formal negotiations with its arch-foe.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US President Donald Trump thanked Iran for what he called a "very fair negotiation" after an American scholar was released Saturday in exchange for an Iranian scientist held in the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The exchange involved Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-born American held in Iran since 2016, and Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist detained in the United States since 2018.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But Iran's government dismissed the idea that it was the result of any negotiations between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This was only an exchange and... regarding exchanges we are ready to act but there are no negotiations," spokesman Ali Rabiei said on state television.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Negotiations or any kind of talks" can only take place "within the framework of the 5+1 and after America has refrained from sanctions and economic terrorism," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The P5+1 is the group of countries that agreed on a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 -- the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since last year, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and began reimposing sweeping sanctions on the Islamic republic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Iran's government has long demanded that the US first drops the sanctions for it to return to negotiations under the auspices of the P5+1.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wang, doctoral candidate at Princeton, was conducting research in Iran when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He had been serving 10 years on espionage charges.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Soleimani, a professor and stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested at a Chicago airport in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones.</p>.<p class="bodytext">On Monday, the Iranian spokesman Rabiei said the prisoner swap came despite a US rejection of an offer Tehran made to Washington last year for an exchange of all detainees.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A few months ago, he said, Iran had received a message from "a former US official" saying the Americans were ready to make an exchange.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rabiei appeared to be referring to former US congressman Jim Slattery who, according to the New Yorker magazine, had approached the Iranians on behalf of the Wang family's lawyer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In its report, the New Yorker said Soleimani was expected to be deported after pleading guilty under a deal that Slattery had worked on with Soleimani's lawyers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"In a surprise move, however, the Justice Department instead dropped all charges against Soleimani," before the exchange went ahead, it said, citing an official from the US administration.</p>
<p class="title">Iran said Monday it was open to more prisoner swaps with the US while stressing an exchange at the weekend was not the result of formal negotiations with its arch-foe.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US President Donald Trump thanked Iran for what he called a "very fair negotiation" after an American scholar was released Saturday in exchange for an Iranian scientist held in the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The exchange involved Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-born American held in Iran since 2016, and Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist detained in the United States since 2018.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But Iran's government dismissed the idea that it was the result of any negotiations between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This was only an exchange and... regarding exchanges we are ready to act but there are no negotiations," spokesman Ali Rabiei said on state television.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Negotiations or any kind of talks" can only take place "within the framework of the 5+1 and after America has refrained from sanctions and economic terrorism," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The P5+1 is the group of countries that agreed on a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 -- the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since last year, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and began reimposing sweeping sanctions on the Islamic republic.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Iran's government has long demanded that the US first drops the sanctions for it to return to negotiations under the auspices of the P5+1.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wang, doctoral candidate at Princeton, was conducting research in Iran when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He had been serving 10 years on espionage charges.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Soleimani, a professor and stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested at a Chicago airport in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones.</p>.<p class="bodytext">On Monday, the Iranian spokesman Rabiei said the prisoner swap came despite a US rejection of an offer Tehran made to Washington last year for an exchange of all detainees.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A few months ago, he said, Iran had received a message from "a former US official" saying the Americans were ready to make an exchange.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rabiei appeared to be referring to former US congressman Jim Slattery who, according to the New Yorker magazine, had approached the Iranians on behalf of the Wang family's lawyer.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In its report, the New Yorker said Soleimani was expected to be deported after pleading guilty under a deal that Slattery had worked on with Soleimani's lawyers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"In a surprise move, however, the Justice Department instead dropped all charges against Soleimani," before the exchange went ahead, it said, citing an official from the US administration.</p>