South Korea has used US$18 million of frozen Iranian assets to pay Tehran’s dues to the UN, in a move to immediately restore the country’s voting rights, Seoul said yesterday.
The payment was made on Friday in co-operation with the US and the UN after Iran made an “emergency request” asking South Korea to pay the dues, the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a statement.
Iran has more than US$7 billion in funds for oil shipments frozen at two South Korean banks due to US sanctions.
Photo: Reuters
“Iran’s voting right at the UN General Assembly is expected to be immediately restored with the payment,” the ministry said.
Tehran’s mission to the UN told Agence France-Presse that the payment had been “completed.”
The Islamic republic was South Korea’s third-largest Middle Eastern trade partner before the US unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, and reimposed crippling sanctions.
The UN cited unpaid dues when it suspended Iran’s voting rights at the General Assembly earlier this month.
Under the UN charter, a member country’s right to vote is suspended when its arrears equal or exceed the dues it should have paid over the preceding two years.
Iran also lost its vote over unpaid dues last year.
It said it could not pay even the minimum amount because of US economic sanctions.
After months of negotiations, Tehran was granted an exemption — it was allowed to access money blocked by the US Treasury — and got back its vote in June last year, in time for the election of new members of the UN Security Council.
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