Some of the Iranians had volunteered to leave after being in detention centers for months, and some had not.
The first group of about 400 Iranians expected to be deported from the US under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown were due to land in Qatar on Tuesday before flying to Tehran, a US and an Iranian official said.
The group included both convicted criminals and people who had entered the country illegally, said the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The transfer marks an unusual moment of coordination between two nations at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is purely civilian but Washington asserts is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.