South Korea pays back Iran $18 million, UN voting rights restored
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South Korea said it used $18 million in frozen Iranian funds in order to restore its voting rights at the general assembly.
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The Deputy Foreign Ministers of South Korea and Iran in Tehran in January 2021 (AFP)
South Korea announced Sunday that it had used $18 million in frozen Iranian funds to pay Tehran's UN dues and restore the country's voting rights.
The right to vote of a member nation is suspended under the UN charter when its arrears equal to or exceed the dues it should have paid during the previous two years.
Last year, Iran's unpaid dues resulting from unilateral US sanctions also made it lose a vote. After months of discussions, it was granted an exception, allowing it to access funds banned by the US Treasury, and it regained its vote in June, just in time for the election of new Security Council members.
The payment had been "completed" on Friday according to the Tehran mission to the UN.
In July, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reiterated Iran's clear right to utilize assets illegally held in South Korean banks.
Before the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement and imposed crushing sanctions in a failed attempt to subjugate the country, Iran was South Korea's third-largest trading partner in the Middle East.
Due to unilateral US sanctions, Iran has more than $7 billion in money for oil exports blocked at two South Korean banks.
The US Department of State announced in July 2021 that it had issued an exemption to some of Iran's blocked funds in South Korea and Japan, allowing them to import Iranian oil. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the "transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea."
It should be recalled that US sanctions prevented Iran from paying United Nations dues on January 19, putting it on a list of countries in arrears with several others.
In early January, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, stressed that South Korea is obligated to release frozen Iranian funds regardless of the outcome of negotiations in Vienna on reviving the nuclear deal.
During a meeting with Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-Kun, Bagheri Kani stated that regardless of the Vienna talks outcome, "the South Korean government is obligated to release Iran's frozen funds," according to IRNA.
