Iran Says $7 Billion In Frozen Funds About To Be Returned To Tehran

Iranian media have reported that a deal is about to be struck for $7 billion in funds that are currently frozen in overseas banks to be released back to Tehran.

The funds have been trapped by U.S. sanctions on Iran. It is not clear if the unfreezing of the funds may be a sign of progress at the long-running talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Al-Busaidi is expected in Tehran on April 12 to help finalise the deal. Iranian news agency Tasnin has reported that the funds could first be transferred to the Central Bank of Iran’s account at the Central Bank of Oman.

The current location of the funds has not been revealed, but they represent only a small fraction of the Iranian assets frozen around the world. Iran is thought to have well over $100 billion in funds trapped in banks in Iraq, South Korea, Japan, Canada and elsewhere.

The figure includes an estimated $10 billion frozen in South Korea, with a reported $7 billion held at the Industrial Bank of Korea and Woori Bank and a further $2.7 billion frozen at the Seoul branch of Iran’s Bank Mellat.

These funds have been the subject of bilateral talks in recent months. In January, South Korea used some of the funds it holds to pay Iranian dues to the United Nations.

Iranian state-owned news agency IRNA said the framework of the latest deal would be similar to a recent agreement with the UK which saw the transfer of €470 million ($510 million) to Iran to settle a debt dating back to the 1970s. At the same time as the money was paid, two UK citizens – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori – were allowed to leave the country and return to Britain.

Others, however, remain detained in Iran and their representatives have complained that the UK government has not done enough to help. Satar Rahmani, a spokesman for Mehran Raoof – who has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since October 2020 – said it was “a travesty and outrage that three British citizens – Mehran Raoof, Morad Tahbaz, and Shahram Shirkhani – remain imprisoned in Iran, conspicuously left out, so far, of the agreement struck between the British and Iranian governments.”