Iranian assets unfrozen: Iranian assets worth $100bn that had been frozen since sanctions were imposed on the country more than two decades ago have now been freed up, Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht has confirmed.
“These assets have fully been released and we can use them,” Nobakht said in comments posted on the website of state-run Press TV earlier this week. Most of the money belonged to Iran’s central bank and National Development Fund, he added, and that it would not all be repatriated but used to purchase goods and services abroad. A significant proportion of the money has been piling up in banks in China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey since international sanctions were tightened in 2012 over Tehran’s nuclear program.
In the meantime, nine Iranian banks have now been reconnected to the SWIFT financial messaging service, although not as yet their network of ATMs, according to senior central bank official Nasser Hakimi.
$100bn of Iranian assets unfrozen as banks reconnect to SWIFT
Source: todayszaman