A reported $24 billion of Iran’s frozen assets will soon be released from Iraq and South Korea, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
The release of the funds is reportedly an outcome of the recent meeting between Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Omani Sultan Haitham bin Tarik in Tehran and of a low-profile trip to Muscat by US President Joe Biden’s senior West Asia advisor Brett McGurk.
According to Axios, McGurk’s trip to the Sultanate was meant to discuss “a new diplomatic push over Iran’s nuclear program with Omani mediation.”
Oman is also mediating talks between Saudi Arabia and the Ansarallah-led government in Yemen.
The news of the assets’ release comes on the heels of a meeting between the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Mohammad Reza Farzin, and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, in Washington, where it was reportedly decided that Iran will be able to access more than $6.7 billion of its special drawing rights.
Over recent weeks, western media reports have revealed renewed interest in Washington to restart indirect talks with the Islamic Republic over the inert Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.
Washington unilaterally pulled out of the nuclear deal in 2018 and launched a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign against Iran.
After months of talks between Iran and the remaining signatories of the JCPOA, last September — under heavy Israeli pressure — the US put an end to any hope of restoring the deal.
Since then, Iran has restored ties with Saudi Arabia under a Chinese-brokered deal and is reportedly working alongside Gulf countries to form a “naval alliance” to protect the northern Indian Ocean.
Witnessing these developments and seeing itself being pushed aside by former allies in West Asia, the US is in a scramble to reposition itself in the region.