On Thursday, as part of the deal to extend the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran past their original July deadline, Japan unfroze $1 billion in Iranian oil money and transferred it to the Central Bank of Iran.
According to Iran’s official IRNA news agency:
The first and second installments of $2.8 billion frozen assets were deposited to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) under the second stage of Geneva deal. …
The two installments were part of the Iranian frozen resources that have already been agreed to be deposited to CBI account in six tranches (a trench every 20 days).
That deal stipulated that Iran would continue to curb its controversial nuclear program, which Israel, the West and much of the Arab world say is leading to the Islamic Republic developing nuclear weapons capability, in exchange for a partial lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
Also on Thursday, the European Union said that talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers will resume on New York on September 18.
The Japan Times adds some context:
Japan, China, India and South Korea are the biggest buyers of Iranian crude. Japan, along with South Korea and India, cleared some of its oil dues earlier under the payment schedule agreed with the six powers in the interim agreement.
Despite the condition that funds would only be released if Iran continued to “curb its … nuclear program,” earlier this week Iran announced that it had tested a new generation of more efficient and easier to conceal centrifuges in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the agreement. In addition to its questionable upholding of its P5+1 commitments, it was reported Wednesday that Iran was impeding a parallel International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation into its nuclear program.
The loosening of sanctions has revived the Iranian economy to the point that it has undermined American leverage, ultimately impeding the possibility of obtaining “[a]n agreement that is verifiable, enforceable and that prevents Iran from pursuing … a nuclear weapon.”
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