The United States denied Iranian reports that the release of two Americans detained by Tehran would lead to the release of Iranian capital abroad.
85-year-old Iranian-American Baqer Namazi was allowed to leave Iran after 7 years of being prevented from leaving, and his imprisoned son Siamak was released.
On Sunday, Iran’s official media announced that Tehran now expects to release its stray assets abroad after “the outcome of negotiations with the United States over the prisoners.”
And Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported that the action against Namazi and his son “is related to the release of frozen financial assets in South Korea for the benefit of Iran.”
Citing unnamed “informed sources,” the agency predicted the “imminent release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets in South Korea as part of the Iran-US prisoner release agreement.”
He said: “The last few weeks have seen intensive negotiations with the mediation of one of the countries in the region for the simultaneous release of prisoners between Iran and the United States and billions of dollars of Iranian assets.”
But the US State Department denied any such connection, saying it was “totally false”.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Sunday: Baqer Namazi was unjustly arrested in Iran and after serving his sentence, he was not allowed to leave the country despite repeated requests for urgent medical care.
He added: We know that the lifting of the travel ban and the release of his son is related to his medical condition.
Iran has frozen tens of billions of dollars due to sanctions that former US President Donald Trump reimposed in 2018 after he unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 international nuclear deal.
In January 2021, Tehran accused Seoul of holding its assets “hostage,” while the two sides have repeatedly confirmed in recent months that they will negotiate ways to release those assets.
Source: Lebanon Debate
