the UNITED states will release an iranian stamcelleekspert in the context of a prisoner exchange with Iran.

A chinese-american graduate student, who has been held in prison in Iran since 2016 and later convicted of spying, to be released as part of a prisoner exchange between the UNITED states and Iran.

It informs both the us president, Donald Trump, and Iran's ministry of foreign affairs.

- After more than three years in prisoner in an iranian prison, will Xiyue Wang return to the UNITED states, said Trump in a statement.

the U.S. will in turn release an iranian stamcelleekspert by the name of Massoud Soleimani.

- I am glad that professor Massoud Soleimani and mri. Xiyue Wang soon will be reunited with their families, writes the iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Sharif, on Twitter.

Wang, a u.s. citizen and graduate student at Princeton University, was started with a study in Iran in 2016, when he was detained and accused by Iran to "spy under the cover of his research".

He was subsequently sentenced to ten years in prison for espionage. A claim which his family and the university denies.

Hua Qu, Wang's wife, has also confirmed that Wang has been released.

Our family will be reunited. Our son, Shaofan, and I have been waiting three long years for this day, and it is difficult to express with words how happy we are to be reunited with Xiyue, she says in a statement.

Soleimani, who is stamcelleekspert, was arrested at the airport in Chicago in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to export biological material to Iran in violation of US sanctions.

Donald Trump said in a public statement that he will continue to work with the release of all americans, "there will be illegal fangeholdt".

There has been great tension between the UNITED states and Iran, since the UNITED states last year pulled out of the international atomaftale with Iran.

instead of re-imposing president Donald Trump tough economic sanctions against the country.

/ritzau/Reuters