South Korea Hopes Iran's Frozen Funds Will Be Resolved Smoothly

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, January 2022 (File photo: South Korean Foreign Ministry)
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, January 2022 (File photo: South Korean Foreign Ministry)
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South Korea Hopes Iran's Frozen Funds Will Be Resolved Smoothly

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, January 2022 (File photo: South Korean Foreign Ministry)
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations in Vienna, January 2022 (File photo: South Korean Foreign Ministry)

South Korea's foreign ministry said on Friday that it hopes the issue of Iranian frozen funds will be resolved smoothly.

The ministry said it had no information regarding media reports that Iran may free five detained US citizens as part of a deal under which $6 billion in Iranian funds in South Korea would be unfrozen, according to Reuters.

"Our government has been closely consulting with involved countries such as the United States and Iran to resolve the frozen fund issue, and hopes that the issue will be resolved amicably," the ministry said in a statement.

Iran has transferred five Iranian-Americans from the IRGC-affiliated Evin prison to house arrest in exchange for frozen funds in South Korea.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying that the Iranian assets, which were previously held in South Korea, were converted through a Swiss bank.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said the next step would be the transfer of $6 billion in Iranian frozen assets in South Korea to a special account in Qatar which Iran could access only for humanitarian purchases such as food and medicine.

Ties between South Korea and Iran have been tense in the past five years, after South Korea froze over $9 billion in Iranian funds under US sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program.

On 29 July, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi submitted a bill to parliament called “The Referral of Dispute between the Central Bank of Iran and the Government of the Korean Republic for Arbitration”.

Shahriar Heydari, deputy head of the Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said in press statements that the draft allows the government to reconsider the diplomatic ties with South Korea.



Russia Expels Two UK Diplomats as it Negotiates to Restore US Ties

A flag flies at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A flag flies at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Russia Expels Two UK Diplomats as it Negotiates to Restore US Ties

A flag flies at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
A flag flies at the British embassy in Moscow, Russia September 13, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Russia accused two British diplomats on Monday of spying and gave them two weeks to leave the country, reinforcing the downward trajectory of Moscow's diplomatic relations with Europe even as it negotiates to restore ties with the United States.
Britain's Foreign Office rejected the allegations against its diplomats as "baseless".
Moscow has been angered by Britain's continued military support for Ukraine and by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent statements about putting British boots on the ground and planes in the air in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force, Reuters said.
The expulsions also come days after three Bulgarians were found guilty in a London court of being part of a Russian spy unit run by Wirecard fugitive Jan Marsalek to carry out surveillance on a US military base and other individuals targeted by Moscow.
The two Britons appear to be the first Western diplomats to be expelled from Russia since Moscow and Washington opened talks on restoring staff at their respective embassies that have been depleted by tit-for-tat expulsions, part of Donald Trump's rapprochement with the Kremlin that has alarmed European allies.
Similar expulsions have sharply curtailed the functioning of Russian embassies across the West and of Western missions in Russia since President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Russia's Federal Security Service said the two British diplomats had provided false information when getting permission to enter the country, and it had "identified signs of intelligence and subversive work" they had carried out, harming Russian security.
The Kremlin said Russia's intelligence services were doing everything necessary to safeguard national security.
Responding to Moscow's decision, Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement: "This is not the first time that Russia has made malicious and baseless accusations against our staff."
RELATIONS IN DEEP FREEZE
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned a British embassy representative over the expulsions and had complained that the diplomats were "undeclared" employees of Britain's intelligence services, something Moscow would not tolerate.
The ministry said it would "respond in kind" if London now decided to "escalate" the situation.
Russian police in February opened a criminal investigation into an alleged assault on a freelance journalist by a person believed to be an employee of the British embassy, an allegation London dismissed as "an interference operation" designed to intimidate legitimate diplomats.
That announcement came a day after Britain announced it was expelling a Russian diplomat in retaliation for Moscow throwing out a British diplomat last November.
Relations between Britain and Russia have plunged to post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukraine war. Britain has joined successive waves of sanctions against Russia and provided arms to Ukraine.