Part of this asset has been frozen almost throughout the existence of the Islamic Republic of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
However, most of Iran's frozen money is recent payments, related to Iran's oil exports to China, India, South Korea and Japan.
These Iranian funds are stuck after the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018.
Estimates of Iran's assets abroad vary significantly. Tehran believes that this figure is at least 100 billion USD, while many experts believe that the actual figure is much lower. In the immediate future, Iran's priority is to gradually release about 24 billion USD.
Disbursing part of this amount will help Iran increase the value of its domestic currency and curb inflation, according to Mr. Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Managing Director of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation - an economic research organization.
For a long time, China has been Iran's largest oil buyer. Estimates show that Tehran's frozen assets in this country range from 20 billion to 50 billion USD.
The US has the ability to prevent countries from paying oil to Iran because almost all global oil transactions are made in USD. The US Treasury Department may remove financial institutions violating sanctions from the USD payment system - a very strong pressure tool used in the past 2 decades.
Iraq is a major importer of electricity and gas from Iran. However, for many years, Washington's sanctions have prevented Baghdad from fully paying Tehran. During his term, US President Donald Trump ended the immunity mechanism allowing Iraq to pay for electricity and gas imported from Iran.
Before the US withdrew from the nuclear deal, India was Iran's second largest oil buyer. After sanctions were re-imposed, Indian banks were forced to retain payments related to crude oil imported from Iran.
Similar to China and India, South Korea was once one of Iran's important oil customers before the US imposed sanctions.
Most of the approximately 7 billion USD frozen in South Korea was later transferred to Qatar under the prisoner exchange agreement between Iran and the US. The US has not yet allowed Qatar to disburse this amount, although in principle the money is only used for humanitarian purposes. Current negotiations are significantly focused on whether Iran has access to this source of money or not.
In addition to China, Iraq, India, South Korea and Qatar, Iran's assets are also held in Japan, Luxembourg, Oman and even in the United States.
For Tehran, access to blocked funds is not only of financial significance but also one of the most important goals in all negotiations related to easing international sanctions.
