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is willing to make an extensiveÌýprison-swap deal with the US and to engage in direct talksÌýif Washington releasesÌý$8 billion worthÌýin frozen overseas assets, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Saturday, according to aÌý³Ò³Ü²¹°ù»å¾±²¹²Ô report.

Speaking at the , the FM said the prisoner swap issue was a "" one,Ìýand that an agreement of some sort was made last year.

Amir-Abdollahian said that the US was interested in linking the potential prisoner swap with the ongoing nuclear deal Vienna talks but insistedÌýthat Iran does not share that point of view, and a deal can be reached "immediatelyÌýaway from the talks".

The top diplomat'sÌýremarks also confirmed that the US was trying to include the release several dual national political prisoners in the deal.

During the conference, Amir-Abdollahian also said that "the US and Iran have never been so close in reaching a deal as we are today", in reference to the nuclear deal talks, which were stalled when then-US President from the deal in 2018.

The talks have since been brought back after President Joe Biden assumed office in January 2021.

Amir-Abdollahian also urged the US to show "flexibility" in providing legal, political, and economic guarantees that it will .

He stressed that the most important guarantee was an economic one, and that Iran wants to ensure that no can be legally applied should an Iranian company make a deal with a foreign one.

The minister proposed that parliaments of the countries signÌýthe deal to "confirm some kind of support for the talks’ outcome".