Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Washington should return $10 billion in frozen funds to Tehran before discussing the nuclear deal
“They are unwilling to return the $10 billion belonging to the Iranian nation. And in this case, we could say that the Americans have taken the interests of the Iranian nation into account once in the last few decades”, – the minister said in an interview with an Iranian TV channel.
Iran has lost tens of billions of dollars of its assets in foreign banks, which were derived from oil and gas exports, because of sanctions by the United States on its banking and energy sectors.
Abdollahian stressed that Washington officials had reached out to Iran in September, through UN mediators, to negotiate the resumption of negotiations to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s atom in its entirety.
“The Americans tried to contact us through various channels during the UNGA session in New York, and I told the mediators that if America’s intentions are serious, there needs to be serious evidence of that”, – he summarised.