‘Respect’ from Trump could yield prisoner swap: Iran’s Zarif

Bloomberg

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested a show of respect from President Donald Trump could help yield a prisoner swap.
“It is a possibility, certainly from a humanitarian perspective, but — but it requires a change of attitude,” Zarif told correspondent Margaret Brennan in an interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that was expected to air in full on Sunday.
Zarif added it would also require “a change of language” from Trump, according to a transcript provided by the network. Trump has long taken a hawkish view on Iran, blasting the nuclear agreement struck by President Barack Obama and Tehran’s leadership on a number of issues.
Zarif was asked about American prisoners being held in Iran, and whether he’d be willing to sit down with the Trump administration to talk about them. “It is important, as I said, for the administration to show the ability to engage in a respectful discourse,” he said. “Before you make demands, the US needs to learn how to treat other sovereign nations.”
Zarif said that means showing “respect” towards Iran, including not talking about “this illusion about regime change.” In an earlier CBS excerpt, Zarif said Iran was “ready” to restart its nuclear weapons programme if Trump resumes sanctions and nixes the 2015 multilateral accord.