US did not offer Iran to exchange prisoners, says State Department

The United States did not offer a prisoner swap, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said.

Earlier media reports said that the US offered Iran to release unnamed Iranian prisoners in exchange for a US citizen of Iranian origin Amir Hekmati. It was noted that negotiations are going through Swiss intermediaries.

"Those reports are not accurate. The US government has not proposed a prisoner exchange for Mr. Amir Hekmati," Jeff Rathke is quoted by RIA Novosti. He called on the Iranian government to release Hekmati immediately, as well as two other detained US citizens – journalist Jason Rezayan and Saeed Abedini. State Department spokesman also called on Tehran to help find Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent, who disappeared in Iran in 2007.

Amir Hekmati, a former US Marine, was detained in Iran during a visit to relatives and sentenced to death for spying for the United States. Earlier this year, his sentence was reduced to 10 years in prison.