The South Korean ship’Korea Chemie’ and Iran, who are detaining the captain, have said that the problem of freezing funds tied to Korean commercial banks has been resolved, but the Korean government denied it.
On the 22nd, at the Korean Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Ambassador Yoo Jung-hyun and Iranian Central Bank President Hemmati are meeting. Are doing. yunhap news
On the night of the 22nd, Iran’s state-run media said, “Today, at the request of South Korea, Iranian Central Bank President Abdolnaser Hemmati met with Ambassador Yoo Jeong-hyun at the Korean embassy in Tehran and agreed to transfer and use the frozen funds.” Especially Ambassador Yu stressed that “the Korean government is ready to take all steps to transfer Iran’s frozen funds, and there are no caps or limitations.”
Iran “Korea proposes unlimited transfer of funds”
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that this is not true. There is nothing changed from the previous negotiations to use some of the frozen assets of about $7 billion (about 6.7 trillion won) for unpaid contributions by Iran and for humanitarian purposes. In addition, the government continued to review ways to utilize the’Swiss Humanitarian Trade Channel (SHTA)’. On the 22nd, in an interview between President Hemmati and Ambassador Yu, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Iran has only agreed with South Korea’s proposal, but as Iran has revealed, there has never been an agreement that it can take as much money as it wants.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials “Iran’s argument is missing an important premise. The issue of sending money to a Swiss account, as well as the use of UN contributions and humanitarian purposes, is a problem that can only be put into action when an agreement is first reached with the United States.”Said. The United States must eventually agree to any humanitarian use that is exceptionally permitted, as the funds are bound by US sanctions.
A picture of a ship hanging in the office of the Korea Chemie ship management company in Busan. Central photo
After all, there are still procedural technical problems. In the case of the United Nations contribution, it was recently approved by the United Nations and the United States, and only the actual payment had to be made, but at the last minute Iran changed its position, saying, “Money should not go through the United States,” and it is said that it was once destroyed.
Iran distorts the negotiation situation when it comes to time
As explained by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Iran’s announcement is close to’fake news’. Since the detention of ships and crew, Iran has continued to play this type of media. It was not true that South Korea only refused to offer an ambulance or decided to collect interest on the frozen funds.
In the end, diplomats have analyzed whether this reflects the desperate situation in Iran. The reason for the detention of ships was environmental pollution, because there is no means to improve bargaining power while there is still no evidence to prove him. Iran insists that the detention is purely a legal and technical issue and has nothing to do with the frozen funds, but in the end it is inevitable that it is Iran’s intention to make progress in the issue of lifting the frozen funds.
Especially It is pointed out that the pressure from having to debate with the United States over whether or not to return to the nuclear agreement is expressed through this type of media play, while sanctions have serious economic difficulties and the public sentiment of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who led the capture of ships, has deteriorated.
Reporter Yoo Ji-hye [email protected]