Unfrozen Iran assets transferred to Switzerland for release under US agreement

Iranian assets, previously frozen in South Korea, have been transferred to Switzerland’s Central Bank for exchange and transfer to Iran, amid accelerated talks between Iran and the United States.

According to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap Infomax, which cited an unnamed currency market source, the assets were transferred last week and the Swiss National Bank plans to exchange its $6 billion holdings in Korean won for US dollars, and then to Euros.

That would result in the conversion of approximately 300 billion to 400 billion won ($223.5 to $298 million) each day for the next five weeks.

The transfer comes shortly after Tehran and Washington recently reached an agreement in which five US citizens detained in Iran would be released, in return for the unfreezing of the Iranian assets in South Korea and their transferral to an account in Qatar which would be accessible to the Iranian government.

Pushing aside popular concerns of the US, Western nations and much of the international community that Tehran would use the assets to fund the vast network of Iran-backed proxy groups and militias across the Middle East region, or even to support the production of drones for Russia to be used against Ukraine, Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, assured last week that the unfrozen assets would only be used to enhance domestic production and industries.

Despite the reports of the assets’ transfer, neither the US, Iran, Switzerland, nor South Korea have confirmed the development, with an official at South Korea’s Finance Ministry reportedly declining to confirm it due to legal and diplomatic sensitivity.

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