Iran to lodge an official complaint against South Korea over blocking Iranian resources

In an exclusive interview, the Iranian official Hossein Tanhaei confirmed “There had been a variety of talks about the amount of Iranian money blocked in South Korea, indicating that between $ 6 billion and $ 9 billion of Iranian money had not been released in Korea, but that figure we emphasize is $ 8.5 billion.”

Regarding economic relations between the two countries, Hossein Tanhaei said "Currently, there is no significant economic relationship between the two countries and it can be said that the economic, trade relations between Iran and Korea have come to a halt."

“We have practically no contact with the Koreans and only a few small Korean private sector companies remain in the pharmaceutical sector.”

“Previously we only had economic relations with 160 Korean companies in the Chamber of Commerce but today all the major companies have left Iran,” the economic expert stressed.

Hossein Tanhaei added that under these conditions, it’s natural and logical that we pursue the case of a complaint against two South Korean banks that have frozen nearly $8.5 billion of Iranian funds under pressure from the United States.

He pointed to sending medicine and food shipments to Iran and added that Seoul had promised to send at least $ 50 million in pharmaceutical items to Iran, but that figure did not reach $ 2 million.

Back in June, CBI Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati said that Iran will take back its dollars from South Korea through legal and international methods.

Also in May, Iranian Foreign Ministry had said that preliminary steps were taken to set up a channel to allow Iran to use its funds in South Korea to buy humanitarian goods. Weeks later South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Seoul was sending $500,000 worth of medicine to Iran.

END