Baku, Azerbaijan, April 17
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
South Korea has unblocked a large part of Iran's frozen assets, an Iranian petrochemical official said.
Ahmad Mahdavi Abhari, secretary of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (AIPC), has said that Iran had exported petrochemical products to South Korea during the sanctions era and the money from the exports was blocked under international sanctions, Mehr news agency reported.
He further added that Iran's total assets blocked in South Korea is less than $1 billion.
The official said that some Iranian petrochemical companies have managed to receive their assets following the removal of sanctions, but some others still have difficulties to collect their money due to the banking system's failures.
The official, however, predicted that the problems with banking system will be removed soon.
In a joint statement on Jan. 16, the EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced the implementation of the JCPOA, aka nuclear deal, and the removal of economic sanctions on Iran. The EU confirmed that the legal framework, providing for lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions, is effective, according to the statement.
Under the deal, Iran will have access to billions of dollars in assets frozen overseas, however the exact amount of the blocked assets still remains unclear.