DUBAI: Iran is dropping plans for prisoner swaps with the US due to “breaches” by Washington in efforts to free the detainees, an unnamed Iranian official told the semi-official Nour News agency today.

Tehran and president Joe Biden’s administration have been communicating on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in US jails and other countries over violations of US sanctions, and of Americans jailed in Iran.

“With the continuing Biden administration… breaches, there is no incentive on Iran’s part to continue this process and therefore the exchange issue in its current form will be completely removed from its agenda,” the official told Nour News, which is close to Iran’s top national security body.

Last month, Iran said a prisoner swap deal had been agreed, though Washington had denied it.

Iran has arrested dozens of dual nationals, including several Iranian-Americans, in recent years, mostly on espionage charges.

Rights activists accuse the country of trying to use the detentions to win concessions from other countries, though Tehran dismisses the charge.

Iran’s hardline incoming president Ebrahim Raisi said today he would take steps to lift “tyrannical” sanctions imposed by the US, after winning the formal endorsement of the country’s supreme leader to take office later this week.