JAKARTA - Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Wednesday, Iran will use part of its assets frozen in Qatar to buy goods needed by the country after talks in Doha.
Based on the memorandum of understanding that stopped the war between Iran and the United States, Washington agreed to provide frozen or restricted Iranian assets as part of the implementation of the agreement.
It is still unclear how the mechanism for the release and use of the funds will work, or when it will take effect.
"During the meeting with Qatari officials, including the Central Bank, a number of issues related to the spending of part of the initial six billion dollars were reviewed," Gharibabadi said, according to state news agency IRNA, as reported by Al Arabiya from AFP (2/7).
"It was agreed that, based on the needs communicated by our country, the necessary goods would be purchased and provided for Iran," he said.
The amount mentioned by Gharibabadi refers to part of Iran's oil revenue transferred from South Korea to a restricted account in Qatar since 2023.
Last month, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran itself would decide how to use the released assets, "in any way that is most beneficial and good for the country."
He also said the funds would be "available for Iran to use freely at its discretion to supply goods that the country needs."
Separately, US Vice President JD Vance said in June that the assets had not been liquidated under the agreement, but if liquidated, the US and Qatar "have an agreement on the process."
He also suggested that the money would be used to buy US goods, including agricultural products such as soybeans.
Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, rejected the characterization on Tuesday, saying the $12 billion of the country's $24 billion in frozen assets "will be given" to the Central Bank of Iran "so that the bank can buy whatever it needs, at whatever price and in whatever currency around the world."
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