20 foreign banks say ready to work with Iran

TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (MNA) – Iran’s media has said at least 20 foreign banks have announced willingness to cooperate with the country over international transaction issues as soon as the sanctions against Tehran are lifted. Mansour Tafazzoli, the Director for International Affairs of Parsian Bank has been quoted by ISNA as saying that talks had also been carried out to activate accounts in 9 foreign banks for transactions with Iran that had so far been banned under the sanctions.“We are ready to resume work [with foreign banks] after the implementation of the nuclear deal,” said Tafazzoli. Iran and the 5+1 reached a deal last July based on which Iran will restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy program in return for the removal of certain nuclear-related economic sanctions against the country. A key juncture over the implementation of the deal is when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) acknowledges that Iran has carried out its share of commitments as per the nuclear deal. An important step to the same effect is for Iran to remove the sensitive core of its Arak nuclear reactor. AEOI officials told reporters on Thursday that it had removed the core and that the IAEA inspectors were in Tehran to verify the move which was officially announce on Saturday. Valiollah Seif, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said earlier this week the CBI had started the proceedings for the much-awaited unfreezing of a total of around $30bn that belong to Iran but have been blocked in overseas banks as a result of the sanctions. Seif said the money could be made available to the CBI as early as next week. He further added that unfreezing the dollars to Iran as well as the opening of blocked banking channels would be positive news for Iran and would accordingly show its effects on the Iranian economy.