Amirabdollahian met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Thursday.

He thanked Qatar for its constructive role in bilateral matters, especially its efforts to facilitate a prisoner exchange agreement between Iran and the United States.

Iran and the US completed the prisoner swap agreement on Monday, following months of indirect talks mediated by Qatar.

The two countries have not had any diplomatic relations for over four decades and their ties have especially been bitter since 2018, when Washington unilaterally abandoned a nuclear deal and re-imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran.

The prisoner swap, which was initially announced early in August, went through after Doha confirmed that $6 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korea due to US sanctions had been transferred to Iranian bank accounts in Qatar.

During their meeting, Amirabdollahian also expressed satisfaction with the growing relations between Tehran and Doha in various sectors, and called for the expansion of those ties.

Al Thani conveyed his country’s willingness to strengthen bilateral relations with Iran and increase cooperation in regional and international developments.