'Cruel deception,' the US says of Iran's prisoner exchange claim.

Iran's top diplomat claimed Sunday that a prisoner swap was near with the US, though he offered no evidence to support his assertion. The US immediately dismissed his comments as a "cruel lie." Hossein Amirabdollahian has made similar comments in the past about possible deals with the US on frozen assets abroad and other issues that never came to fruition. However, in an interview Sunday with Iranian state television, he claimed that Iran had "reached an agreement in recent days regarding the exchange of prisoners between Iran and the United States.""If everything goes well on the American's side, I think we will see the exchange in the short term," he added. The US State Department spokesperson Ned Price called the comments "another cruel lie that only adds to the suffering of their families.""We are working relentlessly to secure the release of the three wrongfully detained Americans in Iran," Price said. "We will not stop until they are reunited with their loved ones." The White House's National Security Council also called the remarks "false.""Unfortunately, Iranian officials will not hesitate to make things up, and the latest cruel claim will cause more heartache for the families of Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi and Morad Tahbaz," the council said, naming the three Americans known to be held by Tehran on widely disputed espionage charges.Iran long has taken prisoners with Western passports or ties to use in negotiations with foreign nations.

The detainees all have dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, something Tehran does not recognize. In recent days, Namazi was allowed to conduct an interview with CNN from Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Ali Bagheri Kani, a deputy Iranian foreign minister who has handled nuclear talks with world powers, made a trip Sunday to Oman, a longtime interlocutor between Tehran and Washington.