United Arab Emirates release Iranian prisoners, Iranian state television announces

A number of Iranian prisoners held in the United Arab Emirates have been released and will return to Iran within hours, as Iranian state television IRIB announces, according to Al Jazeera‘s live coverage of the U.S.–Iran war.

According to IRIB, the prisoners had been held for years in Emirati prisons and their release was secured after efforts by an Iranian diplomatic and security delegation. The state broadcaster adds that a considerable number of those released are women.

The Iranian delegation, according to the same announcement, has promised that other Iranian prisoners in the Emirates will also be released in the near future.

The news comes at a moment of high regional tensions, as the U.S.–Iran war has entered its eighth month and the Emirates — one of Washington’s main allies in the Persian Gulf — have condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, calling them a “dangerous escalation”.