TEHRAN, Aug 21: Iran on Tuesday released on bail US-Iranian academic Haleh Esfandiari after over three months in jail on security charges, in a case that has further raised tensions with arch enemy the United States.

“I can confirm that she was released on a bail of three billion rials ($320,000),” said her lawyer Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize-winning rights activist.

The move was welcomed as “encouraging news” by US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Iranian judiciary officials declined to comment on the case of Kian Tajbakhsh, a US-Iranian urban planning expert who has been held in jail on the same charges as Esfandiari since May.

The ISNA news agency cited a source in the Tehran prosecution office as saying: “Possibly his (Tajbakhsh's) situation will change in the next few days.” There were no further details on the circumstances of Esfandiari’s release or her future movements.—AFP