Page 12 - MEOG Week 07 2022

MEOG NEWS IN BRIEF MEOG

POLICY withholding about seven billion dollars of medicine and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Iranian oil revenues, its two famous home But other countries, he said, including South
Iran, Korea discuss frozen appliances producers- LG and Samsung- also Korea - where over $7 billion of Iranian assets
left the Iranian market.
are frozen in fear of US action - and Japan had
assets payment, oil trade TEHRAN TIMES refused such payment in kind.
With the administration of President
resumption Business leader says China Joe Biden continuing ‘maximum pressure’
sanctions, Washington said in January it
Iran and South Korea discussed the details of barters for Iran oil would waive any threat of sanctions on South
the options to pay Iran’s frozen assets in Seoul Korea only with “everything” agreed in
and also the possibility of resuming oil trade The Chairman of the Iran-China Chamber of Vienna on reviving the JCPOA, where talks
in preparation for potential U.S. sanctions Commerce has said that Iran had “imported are reportedly in their final stages.
relief on Iran, during the two-day meetings goods in return for all the oil that we have sold Billions of dollars of Iranian money
from Tuesday, Yonhap reported. China.” is frozen abroad in fear of US sanctions,
South Korea and Iran have held working- Majid-Reza Hariri told Mehr news agency including in South Korea, Japan, China,
level consultations to discuss ways to resolve in an interview published Monday that China Europe, India, and Iraq. The semi-official
yearslong disputes over Tehran’s assets frozen owes no money to Iran for oil imports but Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA)
here under U.S. sanctions, Seoul’s foreign does hold Iranian assets. estimated in November the total at $50 billion,
ministry said Wednesday. Hariri argued there had been confusion with $8 billion in South Korea, $3 billion in
Iranian bankers and officials from the over $21 billion in Iranian assets that some Japan, and $6 billion in Iraq.
state-run oil company and the petroleum reports have suggested are in China due Some countries such as Iraq to which Iran
ministry are in the nation to meet with South to Chinese fears of punitive United States exports electricity and gas but not oil, freeze
Korean government and company officials action against anyone buying Iranian oil or the money so the volume of frozen money is
to talk about pending economic issues as interacting with Iran’s financial system. growing in their banks. Iraq now owes Iran
multilateral talks to revive the 2015 Iran The business leader said that Iranian around $7 billion for gas and electricity to
nuclear deal enter the final stretch. money in China consisted of Iran’s reserves Iran.
Bilateral relations remain frayed over $7 – cash, bonds, and stocks - that had been Other countries such as South Korea,
billion in Iranian funds locked in two Korean transferred to China years earlier in fear of Japan, and India no longer import crude oil
banks under U.S. sanctions, which were confiscation. from Iran so the assets frozen in their banks
reimposed after former President Donald “After 2007 there was a possibility of date back to before full US oil sanctions went
Trump in 2018 withdrew from the landmark confiscation of Iran’s currency reserves in into effect in May 2019, when Washington
deal. international banks, particularly European offered eight countries waivers to import
Iran, which sits on the world’s fourth- banks, because of legal suits brought against limited quantities of Iranian oil.
largest oil reserves, had been a key oil supplier Iran by some European countries or the China continued buying oil from Iran
to South Korea, importing its goods such as United States,” Hariri explained. even after the US imposed full sanctions. The
industrial equipment, household appliances Iran is known to have moved hard volume was less than 200,000 per day from
and vehicle parts. currency reserves and bonds to China from May 2019 until late 2020, when it increased
In a decree in early October 2021, Leader banks in Britain, Germany, France and reaching to more than 500,000 in 2021 and
of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Switzerland to protect them from being even more by December-January.
Khamenei banned the import of home confiscated. Washington this week announced The Biden Administration reportedly
appliances from South Korea. The order by it will seize $7 billon of Afghan reserves held does not attempt to vigorously enforce the
the Leader came after local producers sought in the US. sanctions, as Chinese importers believe the
Leader’s help in this regard. Hariri said India, like China, had exported risk of violating the sanctions are relatively
Bowing to illegal pressure by the United goods to Iran as an alternative to dollar low.
States, South Korea has not only been payments. These, he pointed out, had included IRAN INTL

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