Iranian funds, frozen in South Korea and later released, have once again become a topic of controversy. This is because the possibility was raised that the US$6 billion of Iranian funds, which had been held up in South Korea, were suspected to have been transferred to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, backed by Iran, after a prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran in September.
However, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Oct. 8 (local time) that not a single dollar of the US$6 billion in Iranian funds released in exchange for the U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange has been utilized to date.
Blinken stated, “We have not yet confirmed any evidence that Iran directed or was behind specific attacks,” but he acknowledged that there is “certainly a longstanding relationship” between Iran and Hamas.
The US$6 billion was Iranian funds frozen at the Bank of Korea. In 2019, then-U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a comprehensive ban on Iran’s oil exports and imposed sanctions on the banking sector, leading to a halt in Iran’s oil imports by South Korea. The funds tied up at the Bank of Korea were payments for Iranian oil.
However, the US$6 billion in funds have not yet been transferred to Iran at this point. Reuters reported that the funds sent from South Korea are still in Doha as they are being overseen by Qatar Central Bank.
According to U.S. government officials, the funds can only be used for humanitarian purposes, such as purchasing food or other items, outside of Iran under the terms of the prisoner negotiation.
Brian Nelson, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said, “As part of the agreement to guarantee the release of five Americans in September, all the money held in restricted accounts in Doha still remains there.”
However, U.S. Republicans have linked the Iran nuclear deal to this recent attack, and some have made false claims that President Joe Biden of the Democratic Party funded the attack on Israel with American taxpayer dollars, as reported by Reuters.