Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 6
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's Bank of Industry and Mine used $4 billion of Iran's assets, which have been frozen due to the country's nuclear program in China, for development projects.
Gholamhossein Nematollahi, deputy governor of Bank of Industry and Mine, said $4 billion has been allocated for rail and steel projects, including the Isfahan-Tehran high speed train project, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on Jan. 6.
He added that $4 billion more will be also allocated by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2015) to eight steel and rail projects, including the Mashhad-Tehran railway project.
Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-e Eshaq has said that Iran has some $100 billion of frozen assets in different countries such as China, India, and Japan.
In November 2013, Iran announced that about $30 billion of its oil revenues have been blocked by Chinese banks due to the sanctions imposed on Tehran's banking system.
The two countries agreed over Chinese companies' financing of Iranian projects as an approach to return the blocked assets.
Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising of China, France, Russia, Britain, the US Plus Germany) sealed an interim deal in Geneva on November 24,2013 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program.
The Geneva deal took effect on January 20 and expired on July 20.
However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months till Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
At a meeting held on November 24, 2014, the sides agreed to extend the talks for further seven months.
During the past year, some $7 billion of Iran's frozen assets in India, China, and South Korea have been released.
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