Chamber of Commerce Member Says Not All of Iran’s ‘Unfrozen Funds’ Will Be Spent on ‘Economic Goals’

Despite occasional discussions of “unfreezing Iran’s blocked assets” by Islamic Republic officials or Tehran-aligned media, it remains unclear where these received funds are being spent.

A board member of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce said on Wednesday to ISNA news agency regarding which organization or institution the unfrozen funds are given to: “We must first see which funds and in what form will be unfrozen, and then we must examine where these blocked funds originally belonged.”

Hamid Hosseini, based on “information we have,” identified the next location of unfreezing as “South Korea” and regarding details of this exchange said that “approximately 23 percent of these funds belong to the National Development Fund and 14 percent also belong to the oil company” and some of it “belongs to the Ministry of Defense.”

In the latest case of unfreezing blocked funds, at the end of Esfand 1400 [March 2022] and during the exchange of Nazanin Zaghari and Anoosheh Ashoori, dual Iranian-British nationals who were detained, they were ultimately freed by the payment of “390 million pounds” by London and with Oman’s mediation, and Britain’s Foreign Secretary announced that Tehran could only spend this amount on “humanitarian” matters.

Although after the prisoner exchange and receiving the amount by the Islamic Republic, Tehran denied the connection between these two events, and Said Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, stated: “There is no connection between debt repayment and the freedom of the mentioned prisoners.”

After government officials of the Islamic Republic recently claimed “high oil sales under sanctions conditions” coinciding with rapidly rising prices, and news of receiving money from Britain also spread, many users of Iranian social networks and political figures demanded the impact of these newly announced assets on the daily life of society.

On the other hand, this board member of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce regarding where these funds are spent stated that not necessarily every money that was unfrozen is “directly” placed in the hands of the “government” and enters the “treasury.”

Hamid Hosseini, announcing that it is not always the case that unfrozen amounts are spent on “economic goals of the Islamic Republic government’s executive team,” said that each of the responsible institutions such as the National Development Fund, the oil company or military institutions, “have their own special structure and conditions” and based on that should “plan.”

In Aban 1400 [November 2021], the website “Khabar Online,” citing Mehrdad Emadi, an economic adviser at the European Union, wrote that “Iran until 2019 had deposits exceeding half a billion dollars in 21 countries” and during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government “more than 31 billion dollars” were transferred to “Moscow” and in return received “rubles,” which is separate from 30 billion dollars in “various accounts” in China.

In Azar 1400 [December 2021], the website “Ensaf News,” based on “statements by Islamic Republic officials,” wrote that Iran in 2021 has “eight billion dollars in Iraq, three billion dollars in Japan, seven billion dollars in South Korea and with a somewhat different perspective 20 billion in China” in blocked assets.

The board member of the Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce regarding potentially unfrozen funds from South Korea, added: “Of course, part of these resources is for the government and there will be an opportunity to use it in parts of the economy, but you cannot look at all these resources in the same way.”

Hamid Hosseini also predicted that in case of “reviving the JCPOA” and “removing sanctions,” Iran’s daily revenue would “increase by up to 200 million dollars” and “an opening in securing credit and pursuing economic goals” would be created.

In Dei 1399 [December 2020], the website “Economy24,” based on statistics published on Asia Times news site, estimated the total volume of Iran’s blocked foreign assets at “100 billion dollars” and wrote: “With our country’s population of 83 million, each Iranian would receive more than 30 million tomans.”

Source: Voice of America