'Ifs and Buts' About Iran's Frozen Assets Abroad

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the West Virginia Senator expressed concerns about the ongoing nuclear negotiations between the Biden administration and the Islamic Republic and urged maintaining the current sanctions and refraining from delisting the IRGC.

Already, 49 Republican Senators have called on Biden not to make concessions to Iran.

Manchin, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he is particularly worried that the US is removing the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list “in the hopes that trade relations can be re-established with Iran to assist with our energy crisis”.

“Let me be clear. The IRGC is a terrorist organization,” Manchin noted, adding, “We must not be short-sighted in the use of sanctions relief to mitigate our present energy challenges”.

He called on the administration “to invest in an all-of-the-above domestic energy policy to bolster our national security and our ability to help our allies and partners abroad”.

He said Washington should not reward Iran with sanctions relief before Tehran demonstrates verifiable efforts towards “curbing their malign influence holistically, including their nuclear ambitions, terrorism financing, and dual-use weapons development”.

He also requested a detailed briefing on the status of the Vienna talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and called on the administration to consult with Congress on critical foreign policy decisions.

A Greek shipping ministry official said the 115,500-tonne Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members, had been seized under European Union sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

The vessel was seized near Karystos on Evia’s southern coast, just off the mainland near Athens. Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels, with exemptions, from its ports.

The US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which supports US sanctions against Iran and monitors tanker traffic through satellite tracking, said the Pegas − renamed the Lana in March − had loaded 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Sirri island, Iran, on August 19, 2021. The tanker headed to Greece after trying unsuccessfully to unload the oil at a Turkish port, UANI said.

The Athens News Agency reported that before being seized, Pegas had a breakdown and was being pulled by tugs to Greece's Peloponnese peninsula, where its cargo was to be moved to another vessel, and that during this journey it was forced by rough seas to moor near Karystos, where it was seized by Greek port authorities.

Associated Press reported the seizure was Friday. Reuters cited witnesses Tuesday that the Peags was still moored at Karystos bay, and was told by the Greek coastguard that the tanker’s cargo had not been impounded.

At his press briefing Monday, the US State Department Spokesman Ned Price reiterated that the administration of President Joe Biden did not want to "negotiate in public" but also said that Tehran needs to address the concerns of Washington if it wants sanctions-lifting that goes beyond the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"If they want to negotiate issues that fall outside the purview of the JCPOA, then we’ll do that, but they will need to negotiate those issues in good faith with reciprocity," Price said.

Apparently the two most important demands, unrelated to the JCPOA, that Iran has put on the table, and wants to be met as "signs of goodwill" before a deal is signed, are removing the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from a US terror list and the release of Iranian funds frozen under US sanctions in other countries, such as South Korea and Iraq.

The IRGC, however, was sanctioned in 2019 by the Trump administration as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and Washington has signaled that if Tehran wants to have this and related sanctions removed, it should provide guarantees that its regional behavior will change.

Moreover, Iranian officials have also threatened revenge against former US officials for the targeted killing of IRGC Qods (Quds) Force commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020, a factor that has made it more difficult to discuss the removal of IRGC terrorist designation.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh on Monday indicated that Tehran was not going to offer any guarantees not to take revenge on American officials. "Bringing these individuals to justice is a fundamental principle in Iran's foreign policy," he said in his weekly press briefing.

Price on Monday called the Islamic Republic the "world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism". "We will use every appropriate tool to confront the IRGC’s destabilizing role in the region including working closely with our partners in Israel," he said. This was perhaps a signal that the Biden administration does not intend to remove IRGC sanctions.

Another thorny issue has been Tehran’s insistence to have its frozen funds in third countries released, something that could be linked with freedom for several US citizens held in Iran on trumped-up political charges.

Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesman said Monday that arrangements over repatriating Iran’s funds were “none of Washington’s business." Iranian officials have claimed in recent days that they will repatriate the funds independently of the nuclear talks, but they did not explain how if US banking sanction are not lifted.

Washington wants the releasee of its citizens currently detained in Iran as a sign of goodwill from Tehran. Beyond the nuclear deal itself, Price said Monday, Washington is focused on the release of its citizens.

Tehran has always insisted that the issue of detained foreign nationals and dual citizens is independent from the nuclear talks but is prepared to release the detainees "on humanitarian grounds".

The hardliner Mashregh News and Fars news website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard have republished a social media post by Mohammad Imani, a hardliner who demanded the government adopt a tougher stance toward South Korea.

On Sunday, Kayhan newspaper, financed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in an article suggested closing the Hormuz to ships originating from or destined to South Korea, which holds $7 billion of Iran’s funds blocked by United States’ sanctions.

Seoul summoned Iran’s ambassador on Monday to express dismay at the Kayhan article.

Imani’s post on social media platform Telegram repeated Kayhan’s demand and asked that the foreign ministry declare its position regarding the ambassador being summoned by South Korea. The two hardline websites republished Imani’s post highlighting that they are simply giving coverage to social media posts for the benefit of their readers.

Tehran has been pressuring Seoul to release the funds for more than a year. In January 2021, a South Korean vessel was seized by the Revolutionary Guard and released weeks later. Seoul says it is not opposed to pay the $7 billion accrued in to banks from Iranian oil imports, but it needs Washington’s agreement, not to be in violation of US sanctions.

Korean banks have refused to pay around $7 billion owed to Iran due to their fears of punitive United States action against them under US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in place since Washington in 2018 left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

South Korea's deputy foreign minister, Yeo Seung-bae, summoned the ambassador Saeed Badamchi Shabestari Monday. Kayhan’s editor Hossein Shariatmadari had written: "We can and must close the Strait of Hormuz to South Korean cargo ships and oil tankers and all ships that carry South Korean commodities … and not allow them to navigate through the Hormuz Strait as long as they have not paid their $7 billion debt to our country.”

Kayhan is financed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office and its editor is appointed by Khamenei.

The Yonhap news agency reported that Shabestari had explained that Kayhan did not speak for the Iranian government. South Korea has said it would like to see the money transferred but given US sanctions it needs Washington’s agreement.

Tehran’s foreign affairs spokesman said Monday that arrangements over repatriating Iran’s funds were “none of Washington’s business.” In January 2021, Iran detained a Korean tanker and in April 2021 banned imports of some Korean home appliances – apparently as a means to bring pressure on Seoul.