Seoul unlocks Iranian assets in exchange for the release of five Americans

Almost $7 billion worth of Iran's frozen assets in South Korea have been unlocked, Iranian Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said on Twitter.

Iranian won assets were frozen in South Korean banks in the late 1990s. “Over the years, due to the depreciation of the won against the dollar, almost $1 billion of them have experienced a decrease in parity value,” Farzin said. The unlocked funds will be transferred to the accounts of six Iranian banks in Qatar and will be used to purchase goods that are not under sanctions.

Yesterday, White House National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said that Iran's assets in South Korea would be unfrozen in exchange for Tehran's transfer of five Americans from prison to house arrest. Under the terms of the agreement, Iran will be able to spend these funds only on the purchase of food, medicines and medical equipment, which do not have a second military purpose.

According to a Reuters source , the five Americans will be allowed to leave Iran once the funds are released.

Iranian-Americans who have been allowed to leave the prison include businessmen Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Shargi, 58, and environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67, who also holds British citizenship, Namazi's lawyer Jared Genser said. The identity of the fourth U.S. citizen who was allowed out of jail was not made public, nor was the identity of the fifth, who was already under house arrest. According to The New York Times sources, one of the unnamed Americans is a scientist and the other is a businessman.

Namazi was convicted in 2016 on espionage charges that the United States dismissed as unfounded. Tahbaz was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to ten years in prison for "assembling and conspiring against the national security of Iran" and spying for Washington. Shargi was found guilty of espionage in 2020 and also sentenced to ten years in prison.

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In mid-June, The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that US President Joe Biden's administration had secretly resumed negotiations with Iran to release its prisoners held by Tehran and contain its developing nuclear program. Talks between senior US and Iranian officials began in December 2022, according to the newspaper's interlocutors. During this period, representatives of the White House traveled to Oman at least three times.

In exchange for the release of American prisoners and restrictions on the nuclear program, Tehran sought to receive income from Iranian energy, which is frozen due to US sanctions. In particular, Iranian officials demanded the return of access to $ 7 billion, which belong to Iranian funds and are stored in South Korea, and to money received from gas and oil supplies and stored in Iraq, the WSJ wrote.