The spokesperson for the Iranian government, Ali Rabiei, announced that one billion dollars of Iran's frozen assets in South Korea will be released.
During his weekly press conference, Rabiei stated, "The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran said during the economic committee meeting this morning that South Korea will release one billion dollars of our frozen assets there." He added, "An agreement has been reached with South Korea and Japan to access our blocked foreign currency resources," noting that "negotiations have been conducted with Iraq and Oman to utilize the central bank's resources located there to meet the country’s basic needs."
Rabiei pointed out that the Iranian Central Bank Governor, Abdolnasser Hemmati, provided a report to President Hassan Rouhani during the government economic committee meeting about his recent talks and agreements with representatives from South Korea, Japan, Iraq, and Oman regarding the use of the central bank's resources in these countries.
Hemmati had announced on Monday that he reached an agreement with the South Korean government, whereby South Korea would release "part" of the foreign currency reserves that it holds for Iran due to U.S. sanctions, which are estimated to be around 7 billion dollars. Earlier, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had seized the tanker (MT Hankuk Chemi) near the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran denying allegations that the seizure was an act of hostage-taking, claiming that Seoul is holding Iran's funds as hostages.
Earlier this month, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that a Foreign Ministry official confirmed that Seoul is finalizing talks with Washington regarding the use of some of Iran's frozen funds in South Korea due to U.S. sanctions, in order to pay Iran's overdue dues to the United Nations. Tehran estimates its total money held abroad to be around 100 billion dollars, including 35 billion in European banks.
