Iran says it has access to unfrozen funds in Qatar, rejects reports otherwise
Iran rejected a report that says the country had been barred from accessing its $6 billion fund, recently unfrozen and transferred to Qatari banks.
“There has been no change in the issue of Iran’s access to its foreign exchange resources in Qatari banks and the agreement [reached in this regard] remains in force,” Nour News, which is affiliate with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on
Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Washington Post reported that US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo had told House Democrats that American officials and the Qatari government had agreed to stop Iran from accessing a $6 billion account in light of a surprise attack by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group against Israel.
Adeyemo’s remarks were cited by two people who were speaking on the condition of anonymity.
In August, Iran and the United States agreed to a Qatar-brokered deal to secure the release of some $6 billion of Iranian funds that had remained blocked in two South Korean banks since 2018, under the pretext of US sanctions.
The money was successfully transferred last month to accounts held by six Iranian banks in Qatar’s Ahlibank and Dukhan Bank.
The administration of US President Joe Biden claimed at the time that the funds and the proceeds of Iranian oil sales to South Korea could only be spent on “humanitarian” purposes. However, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi underscored Tehran’s full authority on its assets, saying it is the Islamic Republic that decides how to spend the funds and that the money will be spent “wherever we need it”.