Iran FM says some of its frozen foreign assets to be released

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Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh confirmed on Monday reports that about $7 billion of Iran’s assets frozen abroad would be released “soon” according to Iranian media.

The spokesman added that a senior delegation will travel to Tehran by the end of the week, he said. According to Khatibzadeh, the necessary framework for removing the blockade of a “significant part” of Iran’s frozen assets has been determined and agreed upon, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Last week, IRNA reported that agreements had been reached with some countries on a framework to unfreeze frozen Iranian assets abroad.

US sanctions have led to billions of dollars in Iranian assets being frozen in a number of countries. The news of assets being unfrozen comes as negotiations between Iran and world powers to return to the JCPOA nuclear deal remain stalled, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken telling MSNBC last week that he was not “overly optimistic” about a deal being reached.

In November, IRNA managing director Ali Naderi tweeted that over $3.5 billion of Iran’s blocked resources had been released by one of the countries holding them, adding that that a “significant portion” of the unblocked resources were entering Iran’s trade cycle. He did not specify which country had released the resources.

Just days after Naderi’s tweet, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi announced that Iran had gained access to its resources in other countries, according to the Fars News Agency.

“In the beginning, the government had problems with selling oil, but now the situation has improved and I can only say that the government has access to its resources in other countries,” Raisi said at the time, without providing any further details.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-703832