On the evening of Monday, 15 February 2016, Iran’s television channel 3 aired a 13-minute report titled “The Rules of the Game” (in Persian, قاعده بازی) about the 17 January 2016 prisoner swap between Iran and the United States, arguing that the exchange was a victory for Iran and a loss for the United States. The program, produced by the “General Administration for Analytical and Documentary Programming” (اداره کل برنامههای تحلیلی و مستند) contends that the settlement of a longstanding property dispute between Iran and the United States was linked to the prisoner exchange, reporting among other things that on the day of the exchange, the U.S. flew $400 million in cash to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
The following is a rough translation of the report that I have prepared. Comments are welcome.