Confirmation of Release of $3.5 Billion of Iran’s Blocked Assets

News that seemed more like a rumor has been confirmed by Iranian Islamic Republic officials: the release of part of blocked assets. The news of $3.5 billion entering the commercial cycle, according to officials and institutions of this country including the Central Bank.

Billions of dollars of Iran’s assets have been blocked in several countries around the world due to economic sanctions on this country, including South Korea, Iraq, and India. These assets are mainly related to crude oil exports to these countries.

Recently, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, had asked the Biden administration to show it was “serious” about its decision to revive the JCPOA by releasing $10 billion of Iran’s blocked assets. A matter that naturally faced opposition from the United States.

Ned Price, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, had said that his country would not accept any new conditions for continuing the JCPOA Joint Commission talks in Vienna.

Now some officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran are talking about the release of part of this country’s blocked assets abroad.

Mostafa Ghomari Vafa, the director of public relations of the Central Bank, even said that part of the released assets has been allocated to securing imports of essential goods.

According to Sunday, November 14 report by Iran’s ILNA news agency, the Central Bank has allocated one billion dollars in foreign currency for importing essential goods.

Ghomari Vafa announced that this one billion dollars is part of “resources that have recently become available to the Central Bank.”

He even claimed that “the process of providing commercial currency is flowing smoothly.” This is while due to sanctions, Iran’s financial transactions have become very difficult.

Unknown Source of Released Assets

The Islamic Republic has left the announcement of the news related to the release of part of the blocked assets to lower-ranking officials. So far, Ebrahim Raisi or his government ministers have not mentioned anything about this.

The news of the release of these financial resources was initially reflected as a rumor on social networks. After that, Ali Naderi, the CEO of Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, announced the news in a tweet.

Naderi wrote in this tweet on Friday, November 12: “Less than 100 days after the start of the thirteenth government, recently more than $3.5 billion of Iran’s blocked resources in one of the countries have become available and a significant portion of these resources is entering the country’s commercial cycle.”

After the release of this news by the official news agency of the Islamic Republic, the market heated up with speculation about which country had released this portion of Iran’s blocked assets.

Hossein Tohidi, the head of the Iran-South Korea Joint Chamber of Commerce, announced in an interview with ILNA that “the $3.5 billion allegedly released was not from Iran’s assets in South Korea.”

This is while Yahya Al-Ishaq, the head of the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, also said in an interview with the same news agency: “The $3.5 billion release that was mentioned is not related to Iraq and is probably related to South Korea.”

The fact that the Islamic Republic does not clearly state which country and through what method this money was released raises some doubts about its authenticity.

Ahmad Azizi, who is said to be an economic expert, says in an interview with ILNA: “The release of $3.5 billion in cash is unlikely.” Azizi’s reference is to the limitations of currency transfers resulting from Iran’s financial sanctions.

He says that if the purpose of releasing such news was to affect the currency market, it is an ineffective measure. Azizi refers to the rising trend of the dollar price in Iran’s currency market in recent days.

He said: “If an overheated situation has been created in the currency market today, this market trend is exactly the opposite and contrary to the intention and purpose of those who released this news, which shows that the market not only does not trust these reports but considers this type of news as negative.”

On the other hand, it should be noted that the news regarding the release of this portion of Iran’s blocked assets has not been reflected in international news agencies, and where media covered it, such as the “Jerusalem Post,” they cited it from sources of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In ILNA’s report about the reason for international news agencies’ silence, it was claimed that for world media “news of this kind is not important.”

Azizi continues: “The volume of currency transactions per day reaches something like 6 trillion dollars, so in the vast currency market in the world these figures are not significant enough for the world to address and this subject has no appeal for world media.”

Obviously, this claim is not credible. A few days ago, the issue of Britain’s payment of $136,000 in coronavirus aid to the Islamic Center in London received extensive media coverage. Obviously, the release of three and a half billion dollars is a figure that should not lack “appeal” for world media.

It should be recalled that part of Iran’s assets have been blocked in countries such as South Korea, India, Japan, Iraq, and Oman. For example, India’s debt to the Islamic Republic is said to be around seven billion dollars. Iraq has also blocked about two billion dollars of the Islamic Republic’s assets. Regarding South Korea, conflicting statistics are published. According to published reports, Iran’s blocked assets in South Korea amount to between six and nine billion dollars.

Source: DW