Daoud Manzour, Vice President of the Republic and Head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization, announced that a “remarkable” portion of Iran’s frozen assets in South Korea, Turkey, and Iraq had been freed.
According to the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency, he said this during a meeting with planning elites and economic specialists on Sunday.
During the discussion, Manzoor stated that: “A significant portion of the Iranian assets frozen in South Korea, Iraq, and Turkey have been released, and of course, these assets are from the Central Bank’s reserves and do not belong to the government.”
On August 25, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that around seven times the amount of Iranian cash frozen in Iraq had been freed within a month.
In an interview with the Iranian semi-official “Mehr” agency, Ali Bagheri Kani, the political assistant to the Iranian Foreign Minister, said: “With the exception of South Korea, part of our money is also in Iraq.”
“In the agreement that we reached with the American side about Iran’s money held in South Korea, the issue of Iran’s money in Iraq was also raised, and its release began,” he continued.
“We have been able to release nearly 7 times the total money that we used in Iraq last year, in the process of economic activities,” Bagheri Kani continued, “and of course, we expect an acceleration of the liberation process.”
On August 11, the terms of the agreement negotiated by Tehran with the United States of America under the auspices of a third nation, which provides for the exchange of detainees between the two countries and the release of Iranian cash blocked in South Korea, were reported by official Iranian media.
According to an official source acquainted with the accord, “this agreement requires Iran to release 5 American prisoners in exchange for the release of 5 Iranian prisoners in the United States of America.”
“In addition, 6 billion dollars of Iranian funds frozen in South Korea will be released, as will a large portion of Iranian funds in the Iraqi TBI Bank,” he said, adding that “the first stages of the process of releasing Iranian funds in European banks have begun.”
On July 11, Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani announced Baghdad’s contact with the United States regarding the payment of Iran’s dues for Iraq’s gas imports, totaling 9 billion and 250 million euros, adding that Iraq had paid “up to one billion and 842 million euros in the seven-month period of the government’s life according to the agreed mechanism.”
According to Al-Sudani, a delegation from the Central Bank of Iraq and the Iraqi Trade Bank departed Iraq for Oman with the goal of “agreeing on a formula for transferring these funds to the Sultanate of Oman in agreement with the US Treasury.”
