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Iranian foreign minister says the United States should release at least $ 10 billion in trapped Iranian funds overseas if it wants Tehran to return to the negotiating table, reducing the likelihood of a recovery early talks to relaunch the 2015 nuclear deal.

In an interview with Iranian state television, Hossein Amirabdollahian said that the Biden administration attempted to contact his team at the recent summit of world leaders at the United Nations in New York through “various channels” about the resumption of talks, at a standstill since the election of the hard line. cleric Ebhrahim Raisi as president in June.

He said he responded via intermediaries that “if Mr. Biden’s intentions are serious, then tell him to send a serious signal and a serious signal frees at least $ 10 billion of our stranded money.”

Iran has frozen billions of dollars in overseas accounts, mostly in South Korea and Iraq, which it cannot access due to US sanctions. Tehran has repeatedly called on the United States to release the funds, which are remittances for Iranian oil imports.

Amirabdollahian also said in the interview that the Iranian nuclear negotiations will be led by Ali Bagheri Kani, an ultra-conservative foreign ministry bureaucrat who has strongly criticized the nuclear deal and was recently appointed deputy foreign minister.

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