Iran says received all installments of frozen money

Iran says it has received all installment of its frozen assets based on an interim deal it signed with the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran’s nuclear program in November 2013.

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has been quoted by the media as announcing that the last batch had completed the third phase of the unblocking of Iran’s assets in overseas banks in lieu with the interim deal.

The third phase envisaged releasing a total of $4.9 billion to Iran in seven installments. Iran had received about $7 billion in the two previous phases.

In November 2013, Iran and the P5+1 group — Russia, China, France, Britain, the US plus Germany — clinched an interim nuclear deal for a period of six month.

Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities as a confidence-building measure, and the world powers undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief.

The relief included the unblocking of some of the country’s oil money, which had been frozen in foreign banks as part of the sanctions.

Iran and P5+1 are presently working on a final agreement over the Iranian nuclear energy activities before the end of June 2015. A new round of talks between the two sides over the text of the final agreement will start in Vienna on Tuesday and will continue until Friday.