Speaking in his weekly press conference, Ali Rabiei said part of the forex resources have already been returned.
“We now have tens of billions of dollars’ worth of foreign currency in other countries. The Central Bank [of Iran] and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working through a joint committee to bring back those assets,” he said.
“So far, a number of these countries have returned to us our forex assets in the form of barter or other forms,” he added.
“These foreign currency assets fall into two categories. One of them is the forex that we deposited as backup for our money in some banks in other countries such as China. And part of the forex is the money we need for our day-to-day expenses, and we are trying to bring it back” the government spokesman noted.
Rabiei, however, refused to name the countries where Iranian forex assets are deposited.
“Let me not mention the names of those countries until the efforts being made by our colleagues at the Central Bank bear fruit,” he said.
He then criticized South Korea for failing to offer the necessary cooperation with regards to freeing Iranian assets.
“We are still expressing our concerns with regards to South Korea as this country does not show the same willingness and efforts that other countries do,” he said.
“Recently, they (South Korea) opened up a small channel for medicines, which we welcomed; however, that channel basically does not meet our needs,” he said.
