As part of a deal with Iran, the US government plans to unfreeze $ 7 billion of the country’s assets. This was announced on Sunday, May 2, by the Al-Mayadin TV channel, citing informed sources.
According to him, the US authorities did not want to pay any funds from the frozen accounts, but Iran insisted on the need to unfreeze part of the funds.
The agreement between the countries also implies the exchange of detainees and the release of four people from each side, the source said. At the same time, the UK may unfreeze Iran’s £ 400 million.
In late April, it became known that the administration of US President Joe Biden was considering lifting some of the toughest sanctions against Iran in order for the country to return to the JCPOA. The US authorities were reported to be open to lifting sanctions related to terrorism, missile development, and human rights in Iran.
Earlier it was reported that the White House, after the Vienna negotiations on the nuclear deal, expressed its readiness to ease the sanctions pressure on the Iranian side in terms of basic economic elements, such as the oil and industrial sectors.
A senior State Department official said that the United States, during the Vienna talks, handed over to Iran a list of sanctions measures that the United States is ready to withdraw in order to return Tehran to the implementation of the JCPOA agreements.
Despite the progress of the Vienna talks, the head of the State Department’s press service, Ned Price, stressed that the participants have a long way to go to achieve their goals.
In April, Vienna hosted regular meetings of the nuclear deal commission for several weeks, as well as informal meetings of the parties in various formats. The topics of the talks are the lifting of anti-Iranian US sanctions and the restoration of the nuclear deal.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 and assumed the lifting of sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on the country’s nuclear program. In 2016, the US Supreme Court denied the Iranian Central Bank the return of $ 2 billion from frozen assets. The court decided to transfer the money to the relatives of the American military, who died in 1983 in the explosion of the barracks in Beirut.
In May 2018, the US government decided to withdraw from the deal and tighten sanctions pressure on Tehran. In 2019, Iran announced a gradual reduction in its obligations, which were provided for by the agreement.