Iran's judiciary said on Sunday that a ruling had been issued in the espionage trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, but the newspaper said Tehran was working a political angle by not revealing details of the verdict.

The July 2014 arrest of California-born Rezaian, the Post's Tehran bureau chief, has been a sensitive issue for Washington and Iran, and Sunday's announcement did little to resolve it.

"The ruling on this case has been issued. There is still the possibility of this ruling being appealed and it is not final," Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told a televised news conference in Tehran.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States was monitoring the case closely. "We continue to call for all charges against Jason to be dropped and for him to be immediately released," Kirby said.

Iran has accused Rezaian, 39, of collecting confidential information and giving it to hostile governments, writing a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama and acting against national security. The Post has dismissed the charges as absurd. The final hearing in his trial was on Aug. 10.

It was not clear if Rezaian or his lawyers had been advised of the verdict, and Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said the statement from Tehran was "vague and puzzling".

"We have no further information at this time and it is not clear whether this ruling includes a verdict or a sentence..."

Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl said the vague nature of Iran's announcement showed that Rezaian's case was not just about espionage and that the reporter was a "bargaining chip."

"This remains a mystery to us. But I think it does underscore that what we're seeing unfolding here is a sham," he said in an interview on CNN.

"For Iran to say that there's been a verdict but that it's not final simply suggests again that this is not a matter for the court. It's a matter that's being decided in the political spheres in Iran," Jehl said.

"What I do think we're seeing ... may be some gamesmanship on the part of Iranian authorities."

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani hinted last month at the possibility of freeing Rezaian in exchange for Iranian prisoners in the United States, but officials have played down the possibility of such a swap.

Rezaian's brother Ali issued a statement on Friday noting the journalist had been in prison for 444 days, the same length of time that American embassy staff were held after the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Two other U.S. citizens - Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant - also are being held in Iran. Robert Levinson, a private investigator, disappeared there in 2007.

Their cases have been raised in subsequent talks, including between Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry when they met during the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month. No progress was announced.

(Reporting by Sam Wilkin in Dubai and Bill Trott in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

REUTERS