Spain To Extradite Turkish Man To US For Iran Arms Embargo Violation

Government-controlled media in Tehran often publish these statements in what some allege are attempts to spread optimism and try to support the falling Iranian currency.

However, none of those news stories have turned out to be true. In the meantime, speculations in Iranian press put the frozen assets abroad between 45 to over 100 billion dollars. Officials constantly highlight the $7 billion frozen in South Korea but Iranian media never mention the reported $22 billion China owes Iran or another $7 billions frozen in India.

One of the latest reports about Iran's frozen assets appeared in Jahan-e Sanat newspaper, which also featured a video about the status of those assetson its website.

During the past week, first the editor of hardliner daily Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari suggested that Iran should bloc the entry of South Korean ships into the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz to put pressure on Seoul to repatriate Iran's oil money. Then Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh claimed defiantly that "releasing Iran's frozen assets has nothing to do with US sanctions and we will not allow the United States to intervene in this matter." Commenting was not allowed under the post.

Following Khatibzadeh’s statement, the US State Department refuted his claim and said no agreement has been made about releasing Iranian assets.

According to Jahan-e Sanat, more than $50 billions of Iran's money is blocked: China ($22 billion), India ($7 billion), Japan ($1.5 billion), South Korea ($7 billion) and Iraq ($3.5 billion). The figures do not quite add up to $50 billion though.

US sources expressed regret that stories about an imminent release of Iranian Americans jailed in Iran were also untrue. Last week, Jomhouri Eslami newspaper in Tehran had announced that "three dual national Iranian American spies" were released in Tehran. Despite the paper's good access to Iranian sources, this one turned out to be false.

According to Jahan-e Sanat, there have been a lot of speculations about repatriating Iran's funds from Iraq and South Korea and Iranian officials have made conflicting remarks about how and where the money is going to be spent.

Iran's Planning and Budget Chief Massoud Mirkazemi said that money, when and if repatriated will be handed over to the Central Bank of Iran, the National Development Fund and the Raisi administration. None of the three entities have reported receiving any money yet. Nonetheless, economists in Iran agree that any funds released will lead to an improvement in Iran's economy that has been under sanctions’ pressure since 2018.

Jamshid Edalatian Shahriari, a former member of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce told Jahan-e Sanat that although these funds can make a difference for Iran, there are many "ifs" and "buts" involved in the process.

"First, we do not know whether or not these assets are really going to be released. Second, these assets will not be released before a deal is made to revive the JCPOA. Third, Some of these countries, like South Korea have said that they cannot give cash to Iran and that they can pay their debt in Kind rather than in cash, and they will determine what they can sell to Iran when the time comes," Shahriari said.

"Meanwhile, the Iranian government has big debts to the Central Bank and the National Development Fund," and this does not leave too much money for the government to solve its huge economic problems, Shahriari observed.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the West Virginia Senator expressed concerns about the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the Biden administration and the Islamic Republic and urged maintaining the current sanctions and refraining from delisting the IRGC.

Already, 49 Republican Senators have called on Biden not to make concessions to Iran.

Manchin, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he is particularly worried that the US is removing the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list “in the hopes that trade relations can be re-established with Iran to assist with our energy crisis”.

“Let me be clear. The IRGC is a terrorist organization,” Manchin noted, adding, “We must not be short-sighted in the use of sanctions relief to mitigate our present energy challenges”.

He called on the administration “to invest in an all-of-the-above domestic energy policy to bolster our national security and our ability to help our allies and partners abroad”.

He said Washington should not reward Iran with sanctions relief before Tehran demonstrates verifiable efforts towards “curbing their malign influence holistically, including their nuclear ambitions, terrorism financing, and dual-use weapons development”.

He also requested a detailed briefing on the status of the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and called on the administration to consult with Congress on critical foreign policy decisions.

A Greek shipping ministry official said the 115,500-tonne Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members, had been seized under European Union sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

The vessel was seized near Karystos on Evia’s southern coast, just off the mainland near Athens. Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels, with exemptions, from its ports.

The US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which supports US sanctions against Iran and monitors tanker traffic through satellite tracking, said the Pegas − renamed the Lana in March − had loaded 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Sirri island, Iran, on August 19, 2021. The tanker headed to Greece after trying unsuccessfully to unload the oil at a Turkish port, UANI said.

The Athens News Agency reported that before being seized, Pegas had a breakdown and was being pulled by tugs to Greece's Peloponnese peninsula, where its cargo was to be moved to another vessel, and that during this journey it was forced by rough seas to moor near Karystos, where it was seized by Greek port authorities.

Associated Press reported the seizure was Friday. Reuters cited witnesses Tuesday that the Peags was still moored at Karystos bay, and was told by the Greek coastguard that the tanker’s cargo had not been impounded.

At his press briefing Monday, the US State Department Spokesman Ned Price reiterated that the administration of President Joe Biden did not want to "negotiate in public" but also said that Tehran needs to address the concerns of Washington if it wants sanctions-lifting that goes beyond the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"If they want to negotiate issues that fall outside the purview of the JCPOA, then we’ll do that, but they will need to negotiate those issues in good faith with reciprocity," Price said.

Apparently the two most important demands, unrelated to the JCPOA, that Iran has put on the table, and wants to be met as "signs of goodwill" before a deal is signed, are removing the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from a US terror list and the release of Iranian funds frozen under US sanctions in other countries, such as South Korea and Iraq.

The IRGC, however, was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and Washington has signaled that if Tehran wants to have this and related sanctions removed, it should provide guarantees that its regional behavior will change.

Moreover, Iranian officials have also threatened revenge against former US officials for the targeted killing of IRGC Qods (Quds) Force commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, a factor that has made it more difficult to discuss the removal of IRGC terrorist designation.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Monday indicated that Tehran was not going to offer any guarantees not to take revenge on American officials. "Bringing these individuals to justice is a fundamental principle in Iran's foreign policy," he said in his weekly press briefing.

Price on Monday called the Islamic Republic the "world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism". "We will use every appropriate tool to confront the IRGC’s destabilizing role in the region including working closely with our partners in Israel," he said. This was perhaps a signal that the Biden administration does not intend to remove IRGC sanctions.

Another thorny issue has been Tehran’s insistence to have its frozen funds in third countries released, something that could be linked with freedom for several US citizens held in Iran on trumped-up political charges.

Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Monday that arrangements over repatriating Iran’s funds were “none of Washington’s business." Iranian officials have claimed in recent days that they will repatriate the funds independently of the nuclear talks, but they did not explain how if US banking sanction are not lifted.

Washington wants the releasee of its citizens currently detained in Iran as a sign of goodwill from Tehran. Beyond the nuclear deal itself, Price said Monday, Washington is focused on the release of its citizens.

Tehran has always insisted that the issue of detained foreign nationals and dual citizens is independent from the nuclear talks but is prepared to release the detainees "on humanitarian grounds".

The hardliner Mashregh News and Fars news website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard have republished a social media post by Mohammad Imani, a hardliner who demanded the government adopt a tougher stance toward South Korea.

On Sunday, Kayhan newspaper, financed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in an article suggested closing the Hormuz to ships originating from or destined to South Korea, which holds $7 billion of Iran’s funds blocked by United States’ sanctions.

Seoul summoned Iran’s ambassador on Monday to express dismay at the Kayhan article.

Imani’s post on social media platform Telegram repeated Kayhan’s demand and asked that the foreign ministry declare its position regarding the ambassador being summoned by South Korea. The two hardline websites republished Imani’s post highlighting that they are simply giving coverage to social media posts for the benefit of their readers.

Tehran has been pressuring Seoul to release the funds for more than a year. In January 2021, a South Korean vessel was seized by the Revolutionary Guard and released weeks later. Seoul says it is not opposed to pay the $7 billion accrued in to banks from Iranian oil imports, but it needs Washington’s agreement, not to be in violation of US sanctions.