US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken informed Congress and international banks of the transfer of $6 billion to Iran via Doha of financial assets held in South Korea as part of a sanctions package imposed on Tehran.
According to Bloomberg News Agency, which claimed today, Tuesday, that it has received a copy of the notification made by the US State Department.
Blinken has told Congress that the $6 billion will be housed in limited accounts in Qatar and will only be available for humanitarian commerce.
Following a deal to hand back American individuals held in Iran, the US prepared the door for the repatriation of these billions of dollars in oil earnings to Tehran.
No formal statement was published by the US State Department or any other official entity verifying what was contained in the notification, the facts of which were reported by Bloomberg, until the early hours of today morning.
The US State Department notice authorizes German, Irish, Qatari, South Korean, and Swiss banks to move $6 billion frozen in South Korea without incurring US penalties.
As part of a deal made with Washington in August, the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated Wednesday that it expected assets blocked overseas to be repatriated to the nation within days.
On August 10, the Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, confirmed what the ministry said on the “X” platform that Doha’s mediation between the US and Iran had resulted in a prisoner release arrangement.
Mohammad Reza Farzin, Governor of the Iranian Central Bank, announced the release of all of his country’s frozen balances in South Korea on August 12, saying that they will soon be placed in European currency (euro) in the accounts of six Iranian banks.
The US has required that these monies be used for purchases and channels that help Iranian residents, as Blinken was quoted as stating last month, and that they would be deposited in restricted accounts to guarantee that they are not utilized in violation of Tehran’s restrictions.
For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated today that his country is totally free to utilize these funds to acquire any non-US sanctioned goods.
