Iranian minister says Baghdad vowed to facilitate Tehran access to frozen assets

Khandouzi told IRNA on Wednesday that in a recent meeting in Baghdad between the governors of the central banks of Iran and Iraq, the Iraqi side promised to devise a mechanism so Iran can use the $10 billion of its assets in the country for imports of goods.

On June 25, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Majid Chegeni stated that “the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity has paid all its gas arrears to Iran and this debt is now zero.”

“But sometimes there are problems to transfer money from TBI Bank to Iran,” he added.

Head of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-Eshaq said a week later that Baghdad has paid its overdue debts to Iran to the Iraqi TBI Bank and the two countries have agreed that there will be no problem for using the money for non-sanctioned reasons such as the purchase of medicine.

The funds had been blocked as a result of US banking sanctions on Iran. Washington has previously issued several waivers to Baghdad, enabling it to release the funds.