On the 4th, a Korean oil tanker’Korea Chemiho’ (9797t) headed for the UAE was captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the 4th. The picture is a CCTV video of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard ship approaching the Korean Chemie. Photo provided by Tycoon Shipping. Newsis
Hosein Tanhai, chairman of the Iran-Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told a local news agency on the 3rd (local time) that they are discussing with South Korea a plan to use the funds of the Iranian Central Bank frozen in Korea to purchase a vaccine for the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
Chairman Tan Hai said, “We met with Senior Vice President Eshak Jahangiri on the 2nd to discuss how to use Iranian funds that were frozen in Korea.” .
In addition, he said, “the Korean government has not yet taken any action on this transaction or the freeze fund lift.”
“First and foremost, Iran’s frozen funds could be used to purchase vaccines,” said Tan Hai. “The Iranian Ministry of Health is in the process of preparing a procedure.”
It did not specifically say whether the vaccine to be imported by Iran will be produced in Korea, or whether Iran will import vaccines from Europe or China, and Korean financial institutions will pay for this import with frozen funds.
He added, “In addition to vaccines, the items that can be imported from Korea to Iran with freeze funds are raw materials, pharmaceuticals, petrochemical products, automobiles, and home appliance parts.”
About US$7 billion (7.6 trillion won) of Iran’s crude oil exports is frozen in the KRW account of the Iranian Central Bank of Korea’s Woori Bank and IBK Industrial Bank.
With the approval of the U.S. government, South Korea and Iran operated an offset-based KRW settlement account that allowed them to trade goods without directly trading foreign currency with Iran. However, the U.S. government withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018, tightened sanctions on Iran, put the Iranian Central Bank on the list of sanctions, and transactions through this account were suspended.
The Iranian government is strongly demanding the South Korean government to lift this frozen fund.
Reporter Bae Jae-seong [email protected]