As momentum builds for a second round of talks between the United States and Iran aimed at ending their war, one central issue has emerged as a bone of contention: Tehran’s frozen assets held in other countries.Iran’s economy has been ailing for years due to sanctions imposed on the country by the US and other nations. These sanctions have been imposed since 1979, first over the US hostages held at the American embassy in Tehran following the Islamic revolution, and then amplified over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes. These measures have restricted Tehran’s ability to access its own assets, like revenues from oil sales, which have been frozen in foreign banks.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listOn April 10, before the first round of ceasefire talks began in Pakistan, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on X that Iranian frozen assets (revenues frozen in foreign banks) must be released before any negotiations could begin.A day later at the ceasefire talks in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, some reports emerged suggesting that Washington had agreed to unfreeze at least some of the Iranian assets being held outside the country. But the US government quickly dismissed those reports, insisting that those assets remained frozen.With talks expected to resume in the coming days, ahead of the expiry of the current US-Iran ceasefire in the early hours of April 22 in the Middle East, that tension is expected to resurface.But how many Iranian assets are frozen, why is Tehran unable to access them, where are these fun …
