Page 10 - IRANRptFeb22

2.4 Iran set to regain UN vote after US nods to South Korea paying Tehran’s dues from frozen funds
Iran is set to regain its vote in the UN General Assembly after South Korea paid Tehran’s owed dues to the world body, drawing on Iranian funds frozen in Seoul by US sanctions.
Earlier this month, Tehran complained that US sanctions had impeded its ability to make the payment for a second year in a row, with Iran unable to use channels within the global financial system. The South Koreans obtained approval from Washington to utilise frozen funds to make the payment on behalf of Iran to the UN. With the US and Iran engaged in efforts at the Vienna talks to find a path to reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, a permission granted to Seoul as regards the payment might have been a gesture of goodwill.
Seoul “on Friday [January 21] completed the payment of Iran’s UN dues of about $18 million through the Iranian frozen funds in South Korea, in active cooperation with related agencies such as US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the United Nations Secretariat,” the South Korean finance ministry said in a statement.
“Iran’s right to vote at the General Assembly is expected to be restored immediately with the payment,” the ministry added.
Tehran has repeatedly demanded the release of around $7bn of its funds frozen in South Korean banks under US sanctions, criticising Seoul for holding the money “hostage”. Most of the money is revenue from past oil sales.
On January 12, Iran’s Dayyani Group, a large industrial company, won permission from the US to have Korean debt paid to it.
Dayyani, the family behind Entekhab, an Iranian consumer electronics group, filed an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) complaint in 2015 against the South Korean government citing the breaching of a deal. It said Seoul did not return the $50mn deposit it paid for a failed bid to purchase a majority stake in bankrupt Daewoo Electronics, according to Reuters.
In 2018, the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ordered Seoul to provide compensation totalling 73bn won ($61.4mn) to the Dayyani family. However, due to US sanctions applied to the global financial system to squeeze out Iran, it was not possible to process the payment.
10 IRAN Country Report February 2022 www.intellinews.com