Page 58 - bneMag Oct23

58 I Eurasia bne October 2023
Iran releases five US citizens after receiving €5.5bn of frozen funds
bne IntelliNews
Iran has released five dual Iranian-US citizens and handed them over to US diplomats waiting in Qatar's Doha's International Airport.
Flight data tracked by bne IntelliNews showed QTR7313 landed earlier in the day on September 18 in Tehran as part of a complex negotiation process which has taken several years to complete between the US and Iran, which included frozen Iranian funds in South Korea, Iranian citizens held in the US and sanctions on Iranian oil shipments.
The flight, which took off as bne IntelliNews went to press, landed in Qatar’s capital Doha by mid-afternoon CET following the arrival of two Iranian prisoners held in a US prison.
Earlier, Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) announced that its funds had been transferred to several bank accounts
held by Iranian commercial banks in Qatar’s Central Bank, totalling $6bn. The money was held previously in Korean won before being converted into euros. That announcement enabled the Supreme Leader's Office to give the nod for the release of the dual citizens.
The governor of the CBI had earlier announced the receipt of an official letter
Governor Mohammadreza Farzin,
in an interview with the 2 p.m. news segment of the national broadcaster, discussed the release of Iran's frozen assets in South Korea. He said that, as per the agreements made, all of Iran's inaccessible foreign resources in two South Korean banks and the Bank Melli branch in Seoul were transferred to the Swiss Central Bank on August 10.
“Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) announced that its funds had been transferred to several bank accounts held by Iranian commercial banks in Qatar”
from Qatari authorities confirming the transfer of €5.5bn to the accounts of six Iranian banks, IRGC-linked Mashregh reported on September 18.
The Governor continued, explaining that the six Iranian banks, including the Bank Keshavarzi, Saman Bank, Pasargad Bank, Tourism Bank, Karafarin Bank,
Five US-Iranian prisoners have been released from jail in Iran and left the country by plane after €5.5bn for frozen funds were released by US. / bne IntelliNews
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