CRI听力:U.S. Calls for Release of Its Citizens Held in Iran

The United States has called for the release of its citizens held in Iran, but has denied a report that Washington proposed a prisoner exchange for a former U.S. Marine.

Jeff Rathke is the U.S. State Department spokesman.

"Those reports are not accurate. The U.S. government has not proposed a prisoner exchange for Mr. Hekmati."

A lawyer for Amir Hekmati, an Iranian-American former U.S. Marine jailed in Tehran, was quoted in a report earlier on Iran's media as saying that the United States had sought his release through a prisoner swap.

Hekmati was arrested in 2011 and convicted of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a charge his relatives and the U.S. government deny.