Iran announced the release all its frozen assets in South Korea
The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Mohammad Reza Farzin, announced on Saturday that all Iranian funds frozen in South Korea had been released, explaining that they would be deposited in Euros soon in the accounts of six Iranian banks.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran said in a series of tweets, “All Iranian assets frozen in South Korea have been released, and these funds will be used in the form of bank payments to purchase goods not subject to (Western) embargoes”.
He congratulated the Foreign Currency Diplomacy Team on the successful release of the frozen balances, adding that “there is no doubt that what was obtained exceeds the current analyses, and of course this process will continue”.
“Unfortunately, nearly $7 billion of our country’s foreign currency was deposited in South Korean banks in the form of won (South Korean currency) in the late 1990s,” he added.
He explained that no interest was paid on these balances during these years, and due to the depreciation of the South Korean currency exchange rate against the US dollar, their value decreased by nearly a billion dollars.
The Iranian official added, “With the successful technical and diplomatic follow-up, all the resources of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea were released, and the costs of converting its currency from the won to the euro were accepted by a third country”.
He added, “Accordingly, all these balances in Euros will soon be deposited in the accounts of 6 Iranian banks in Qatar, and used as bank payments for the purchase of non-embargoed goods, and the rest of these funds, in the event of deposit, will benefit from bank interests”.
He concluded by noting that the resources of Iranian funds will be available in several other countries soon, and their results will appear in the markets and commercial exchanges.
On Friday, an informed Iranian source revealed, through the official IRNA News agency, that its frozen funds in South Korea and Iraq had begun to be released, within the framework of a prisoner exchange agreement with the United States.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, on Friday, that the money will be placed in restricted accounts to ensure that it’s not used in contravention of the sanctions against Tehran,” refusing to reveal more details about the prisoner exchange process between the two sides.
On Friday, the Minister of State at the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Muhammad al Khulaifi, revealed that the mediation carried out by Doha between the United States and Iran had reached an agreement that would release and exchange prisoners.
