Iran to buy ‘non-sanctioned’ goods after having S Korean funds ‘unblocked’

Iran on Saturday announced that over $6 billion of its frozen funds in South Korea had been unlocked after the release of five Americans from prison to house arrest in Tehran. The country’s central bank chief Mohammad Reza Farzin said the funds will be used to buy “non-sanctioned goods”.

“Congratulations to the foreign exchange diplomacy team for successfully releasing seized foreign currency resources,” Farzin wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Farzin said the funds would be transferred to six Iranian banks in Qatar. He added that the costs of converting the funds from South Korea’s won currency to euros would be accepted by the “third country” where the money would be deposited to buy the goods. 

Farzin’s post seemingly confirmed the statement made by Washington a day earlier that there will be restrictions on what Tehran could do with the unfrozen funds. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the money already belonged to Iran but “it will not be receiving any sanctions relief.”

“Iran’s own funds would be used and transferred to restricted accounts such that the monies can only be used for humanitarian purposes,” he said. 

Iran had earned the money by selling oil to South Korea but Seoul blocked the funds to comply with the sanctions imposed by former US president Donald Trump to squeeze out Tehran’s economy.  

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Iran releases prisoners 

On Friday (August 11), Iran moved the five American prisoners to house arrest, in an effort to have some of the assets unfrozen. If all goes as planned, the American prisoners could leave Iran sometime in September. 

Four of the prisoners – Siamak Namazi, Emad Sharqi, Morad Tahbaz and another who preferred to remain anonymous — were taken out of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison as the Biden administration informed their families about the deal. 

“While this is a positive change, we will not rest until Siamak and others are back home; we continue to count the days until this can happen,” Babak Namazi, Siamak’s brother told news agency AFP. 

(With inputs from agencies)