Mohammadreza Farzin announced the deposit of €5.573 billion from Iran’s blocked resources to the accounts of six Iranian banks in Al-Ahli and Dukhan banks in Qatar

Speaking in a TV program, the official said that on August 10 of this year, all inaccessible Iranian funds that were kept in South Korean banks and the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat were transferred to the account of the Swiss Central Bank to be converted into euros.

He stated that during this period, Keshavarzi, Saman, Pasargad, Tourism, Shahr, and Karafarin banks opened accounts in the two mentioned Qatari banks, and added: “According to the agreements, all payments were made by brokers of Qatari banks as well as SWIFT.”

“Yesterday we received an official letter from the Qatari authorities that six bank accounts have been activated and today 5.573 million euros were deposited into the bank accounts”, Farzin announced.

S. Korea taking necessary measures to transfer Iran’s frozen money

Efforts are underway to transfer Iran’s funds that had been frozen in South Korea, after Teheran reached a deal with the United States to release American citizens in return for freeing Iranian assets, the Asian country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday it is working with all parties on the deal “to ensure smooth progress of all procedures so that it will be resolved once and for all.”

Based on the reached deal, the five Americans, with dual nationality are expected to leave Tehran and head to Qatar’s capital Doha and then from there fly to the United States, sources previously told Reuters.

The United States and Iran reached an agreement last month for the release of five U.S. citizens detained in Iran while $6 billion of Iranian assets in South Korea would be unfrozen.

The assets that had been frozen in South Korea were transferred to Switzerland’s central bank in August for exchange and transfer to Iran, South Korean media reported.

The financial dispute between Iran and South Korea dates back to 2018, when the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and started slapping economic sanctions on Iran. Before 2018, South Korea had been the third-largest buyer of Iranian oil and the top customer of Iranian condensates. The oil trade between Tehran and Seoul resulted in the accumulation of some seven billion dollars in Iranian oil revenues in South Korean banks.

With tensions between Tehran and Washington exacerbating, Seoul moved to block the Iranian funds for fear of falling afoul of U.S. sanctions on Iran.

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Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs and Economic Spokesman of the Government Ehsan Khandouzi said in his weekly press conference: “Perhaps we can say that in the last year, the most important economic approach of the government has been to return the economy to a disciplined path with the field of Iran’s financial and monetary policies so that we can manage the fluctuations of the macro-economy.”

In the last eight months, 80.5% of the public resources of this year’s budget have been realized, which has increased by 56% compared to last year.

The Central Bank and the Money and Credit Council had some measures in the way of disciplinary action.

He said about the 1402 (2023) budget bill: “One feature of the budget is the transparency of the government’s public resources in this bill. The second point is the budget’s approach towards the growth of the share of production revenues and the sale of government shares, and we tried not to increase the budget’s dependence on oil (without increasing taxes).”

Another item raised in the budget is the agreement of the Government cabinet, with an average growth of 20% in the salaries of government employees in 2023.

He also mentioned the decrease in liquidity and said: “Liquidity is decreasing, and this shows the decrease in inflation.”

In the field of currency policies, Khandouzi said: “Because our small amount of exports in October and November was more than one million barrels per day, therefore, the government’s foreign exchange income in the last two to three months has been better than in the past. At the same time, talks are going on to use Iran’s blocked assets in other countries.”

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According to IRNA, while the nuclear negotiations to lift the sanctions on Iran have not sill yielded results due to lack of political will by the United States, and apart from the nuclear negotiations process, the U.S. officials are pursuing the issue of the release of their prisoners in Iran as well as the release of Iran’s blocked resources from South Korea.

There are pieces of news indicating that in recent weeks intensive negotiations have been held between Iran and the U.S. with the mediation of one of the regional countries regarding the simultaneous release of Iranian and American prisoners, and seven billion dollars of the blocked foreign exchange resources of Iran are on the verge of being released in this regard.

However, Iran has not yet accepted the declared accounts for the transfer of the mentioned resources due to banking considerations and has introduced new accounts for such a purpose.

Additionally, Stephen Dujarric, the spokesperson of the United Nations, said Bagher Namazi, a dual-national prisoner, has discharged from prison and left Iran while his son Siamak Namazi has been allowed out of Tehran’s Evin prison on a one-week furlough.

In a statement published by Dujarric, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres thanked the President of Iran for accepting his requests to allow Baqer Namazi to leave for treatment abroad.

The Secretary General also said in this statement: “I am happy that Siamak Namazi, the son of Bagher Namazi, has been released from detention.”

He added, “We will continue to interact with Iranian authorities on a range of important issues, including the regional situation, sustainable development, and the promotion and protection of human rights.”

Also, Siamak Namazi’s lawyer, Jared Genser, told a Reuters reporter on Saturday evening that Siamak Namazi has been released from Iran’s prison on a one-week leave that can be extended.

“The travel ban on Baqer Namazi was lifted on Wednesday on humanitarian grounds and due to the requests made for his treatment abroad,” said Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy judiciary chief, state media reported.

On Saturday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price also said, “We were deeply gratified to learn from the UN Secretary-General today that Iran has lifted the travel ban imposed on Bagher Namazi.”

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Speaking to ILNA, Bahram Shakouri talked about the current trade level between Iran and Japan and said that the trade between the two countries has not changed, adding that since the Japanese are major trade partners of the U.S., they are affected by the U.S. sanctions against Iran and therefore the trade between Iran and Japan is almost zero but the Japanese hope that the JCPOA talks would bear fruit and there trade relation with Iran can broaden.

He went on to say that before the new Iranian year begins in March, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) had some talks with Iran Chamber of Commerce where it showed Japan’s interests for cooperation and JETRO called for determining the grounds for cooperation.

Shakouri went on to say that Iran and Japan should start paving the ground for cooperation now in order to operationalize it after the removal of the sanctions. He expressed hope these talks would resume from next week.

He then pointed to the types of trade exchanges between Iran and Japan and said that Japan used to buy Iran’s mineral products, caviar, shrimp, food products, fruit juice, dried fruits, pistachio and carpet but Iran and Japan can cooperate in other fields like in the tourism industry. He said the Japanese are interested in Iran’s history and if we provide a condition for easy arrival of the Japanese tourists, then we can have good earning. He note Iranians are also interested in visiting Japan but due to expenses Iran is a cheaper destination for tourists.

Shakouri went on to say that exhibitions in Japan can be another ground for cooperation between the two countries and Iran can replace Europe with Japan in using the knowhow and technology in many fields. He said Iran can bring famous Japanese car brands to replace low quality cars in the country.

On the fate of Iran’s frozen assets in Japan, he said it seems some openings are happening but since no detail is revealed, he can talk only based its assumption but it seems the U.S. has signaled greenlight to Japan for the release of Iran’s assets.

Shakouri reiterated Japan’s government and people are both keen to cooperate with Iran and even both countries celebrated their 90 years of economic and political ties before the pandemic. He once again reiterated that the Japanese really want the JCPOA talks to bear fruit as they want to buy oil from Iran and even they tried to get some waiver from the U.S. but they failed.

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“Mechanisms have been agreed, but apparently the Koreans have not yet received the necessary permits, so they say they are pursuing the issue,” he added.

“Iran thinks that it is not necessary to obtain a license from the Americans, but the Korean side is still trying to obtain this license from the United States to release Iranian blocked assets in Korea,” Zarif noted.

The Korean foreign ministry said last Tuesday that the Iranian assets locked in South Korea will be released after consultations with the United States. “Our government has been in talks with Iran about ways to use the frozen assets, and the Iran side has expressed its consent to the proposals we have made.”

“The actual unfreezing of the assets will be carried out through consultations with related countries, including the United States,” it added.

The announcement came after the Central Bank of Iran said it had reached an agreement with South Korea on the release of frozen Iranian assets in the East Asian country.

Since 2019 when then US president, Donald Trump, ended the US sanctions waivers for South Korea to buy Iran’s oil, Tehran and Seoul have been at loggerheads over the latter’s blocking of some seven billion dollars of Iran’s cash assets.

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