Iran (IMNA) - According to an anonymous currency market source quoted by Yonhap Infomax, the Swiss National Bank intends to use the currency market to convert its $6 billion in won assets to dollars and subsequently euros.
The article states that over the course of the next five weeks, the Swiss central bank would change around 300 billion won ($223.85 million) into 400 billion.
A representative of the South Korean finance ministry declined to corroborate the allegation, citing the sensitive nature of the legal and diplomatic situation.
Under the guise of US restrictions, the Iranian cash were illegally halted in South Korea.
In May 2018, the US president Donald Trump's administration reneged on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 agreement that removed sanctions against Iran.
Recently, an agreement was struck between Iran and the US to settle several concerns through the mediation of a third nation. The agreement also calls for the unfreezing of Iranian assets that have been unlawfully frozen abroad and the exchange of detainees for humanitarian reasons.
According to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister, there is no relationship between the release of Tehran's assets and a prisoner swap arrangement with the United States.
Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday that the procedure to move the freed Iranian assets from South Korean banks to a European bank began on August 10 and will be carried out in stages.
The money, he said, would be changed into euros within a few weeks and then put into a different bank in a neighboring country.
Iranian cash will be placed into accounts held by Iranian banks in Qatar, according to Mohammad Reza Farzin, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran.
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