Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 23 / Trend, N. Umid, S. Isayev
The US president Barack Obama has authority to free up Iran's frozen assets in the United States, economic Advisor for the companies in the EU, Mehrdad Emadi told Trend.
On Oct. 17, the NY Times quoted an unnamed source as saying the US administration is weighing the possibility of releasing frozen Iranian assets in the wake of the recent promising talks between Tehran and six major world powers.
Emadi said that, Iranian assets in the US have been frozen before the last rounds of sanctions against Iran.
Iranian Alef portal quoted expert on international relations Davood Hermidas Bavand, who said that some $12 billion of Iranian assets are blocked in the United States, including diplomatic and military assets as well as property of the former Shah of Iran and his family.
"Some of the Iranian assets have been blocked before approval of the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)," he explained.
ILSA was a 1996 act of Congress that imposed economic sanctions on firms doing business with Iran and Libya. On September 30, 2006, the act was renamed to the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), as it no longer applied to Libya, and extended until December 31, 2011.
Emadi underlined that, Iranian assets blocked by the order of the US president, can be unblocked upon his order, if there's no threat to US security.
He also added that some US politicians have stated that the United States` viewpoints towards Iran have not been updated in the last several decades.
Emadi underlined that unfreezing Iranian assets will be an important first step to reciprocate Iran's confidence-building measures over its nuclear program.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
""The reports of the United States National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff show that Iran's nuclear program did not have any military aspects for the last three years," Emadi said, adding that the US president can make decision to release Iran's assets citing these reports.
The expert went on to say that Israeli and conservative republican lobbies in the United States have negative position towards the issue. Emadi also said that "two regional countries" have sent private reports to Washington during the last 18 months claiming that Iran walks towards militarization of its nuclear program.
Emadi believes that these issues can affect Obama's decision on Iran, which, according to the expert, "will be difficult".
"The mentioned lobbies have boosted their activities during last two months and their pressure against Washington is completely significant," Emadi underlined.