New Delhi: As the US and Iran look to sit down for the second round of peace talks one issue has, among others, become central, Tehran’s frozen assets
held in other countries. Iran’s economy has been repeatedly hit by foreign sanctions by the West, especially since 1979. Many financial constraints have restricted Tehran’s from accessing its own foreign assets.
What are frozen assets?
Frozen assets, commonly referred to as blocked property in the realm of international sanctions, are financial resources that governments or other international bodies restrict one from access, use, or transfer. These might include bank accounts, funds, real estate, securities, and other economic assets.
These measures are enforced primarily through sanctions regimes, such as those managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) or United Nations Security Council resolutions. Their main stated aim is to deter activities deemed threats to global security, such as nuclear proliferation, terrorism support, or human rights abuses. By freezing assets, authorities aim to isolate targeted entities economically without outright confiscation. Iran has been combating with foreign sanctions for a long time, as has Russia recently.
Why does Iran have frozen assets?
According to US government archives, Iran’s first asset freeze took place in November 1979 when then-US president Jimmy Carter during the Iranian hostage crisis said that Iran “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States”. The secretary of the Treasury at the time, William Miller, told reporters that Iran’s liquid assets back then amounted to less than $6bn, the largest component of which was $1.3bn in Treasury notes held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Then in 1981, the Algiers Accords, brokered by Algeria between the US and Iran, resulted in the US unfreezing a significant portion of these assets in return for Iran releasing the 52 American captives.
According to several reports, Iran has accumulated extensive frozen assets, valued at over $100 billion. These are largely due to successive US and other Western sanctions against the country. Another round of sanctions for Iran came in the 2000s and 2010s over its nuclear enrichment program, ballistic missile advancements, and backing of regional militant groups.
