The United States confirmed Monday that it will authorize the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds to South Korea, as part of the August prisoner exchange deal with Iran.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “initialled a waiver allowing the transfer of these funds” in a formal notification to the US Congress, a State Department spokesperson said on Monday, specifying that this had been done last week last.
“As we previously announced, the United States agreed to the transfer of funds from South Korea to restricted accounts held in Qatar and the release of five Iranian nationals currently detained in the United States to facilitate the release of five American citizens detained in Iran,” according to the same source.
“We have not lifted any sanctions against Iran and Iran does not benefit from any sanctions relief,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier on Monday, a senior Iranian official indicated that Tehran hoped to finalize the transfer of its frozen funds to South Korea in “the coming days”.
Humanitarian purchases
“We hope that the transfer will be completed in the coming days and that Iran will have full access to its assets,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told a news conference.
Iran could use the six billion dollars for humanitarian purchases such as food and medicine.
Mr. Kanani, however, said on Monday that Iran could purchase “any goods not sanctioned” by the United States, and “fully use these released funds”, not just to buy “medicine and food”.
For Washington, however, “no money goes directly to Iran and no taxpayer money is used.” The funds held in South Korea are Iranian funds.”
“These funds will be transferred to restricted accounts in Qatar and the United States will have a say in how and when they are spent,” the spokesperson added.
This financial arrangement was announced on August 10 as part of an agreement between Tehran and Washington, with the mediation of Qatar, to release American prisoners detained in Iran and Iranians detained in the United States.
“We are optimistic that the prisoner exchange will take place soon,” Kanani said.
As part of the deal, Tehran placed five American detainees of Iranian origin under house arrest before their likely transfer to Qatar for release.
Appeasement
For experts, this agreement, concluded after very discreet negotiations, demonstrates an easing of tensions between Iran and the United States, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
But they do not prejudge a possible agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue.
Negotiations led by the Europeans had failed in 2022 to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, moribund since the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in 2018 under the presidency of Donald Trump.
The agreement comes a year after the start of the protest movement in Iran following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, and in the run-up to the UN General Assembly in New York, in which the Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi.
Mr Biden’s Republican opponents protested, describing the president as accepting payment of a “ransom” to a state seen by Washington as supporting terrorism.
This transfer “directly incites America’s adversaries to carry out new hostage-taking,” said Mike McCaul, Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives.
“The administration is demonstrating weakness that only further endangers Americans and freedom-loving people around the world,” he lambasted.
The Biden administration acknowledged making difficult choices, emphasizing that its priority was freeing Americans and that the money already belonged to Iran.
Among the five Americans slated for release is Siamak Namazi, a businessman arrested in 2015 and charged with espionage based on what his family says is paltry evidence, such as past affiliations with U.S. think tanks.
The others are Morad Tahbaz, a wildlife conservationist, Emad Sharqi, a venture capitalist, and two others who wished to remain anonymous.