In this Oct 26, 2020 photo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is seen on screens as he addresses a high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct 26, 2020. (ESKINDER DEBEBE / UN PHOTO / HANDOUT VIA XINHUA)
Iran regained its vote in the UN General Assembly on Friday after the United States enabled Tehran to use funds frozen in South Korea to pay some US$16 million it owed to the world body.
Iran lost its vote in the 193-member General Assembly in January because it was more than two years in arrears. It owed a total of more than US$65 million, but paid the minimum amount needed to regain its vote.
"Iran has paid the minimum amount due," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Friday, confirming Iran could vote again.
Iran says US$20 billion of its oil revenue has been frozen in countries like South Korea and Iraq since 2018 under sanctions imposed by then-US President Donald Trump.
Iran lost its vote in the UN General Assembly in January because it was more than two years in arrears. It owed a total of more than US$65 million, but paid the minimum amount needed to regain its vote
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"Illegal US sanctions have not just deprived our people of medicine; they have also prevented Iran from paying our dues in arrears to the UN," Iran's UN Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi posted on Twitter. "After more than 6 months of working on it, the UN today announced it has received the funds."
Iran was able to vote in the General Assembly on Friday to elect five new members of the UN Security Council.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said that it had proposed to the United Nations that it could use funds frozen in South Korea to pay its dues. It said the world body followed up with the US Treasury Department to get the appropriate approvals.
"The permit was recently issued and the process of withdrawing the membership fee from Iran's account in the Korean banks and transferring it to the UN account in Seoul has been paved, and this payment will be made soon," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said last week.
A spokesperson for the US Treasury Department said on Friday: "The US government typically authorizes the payment of UN dues, including through OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) general licenses and specific licenses."
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The UN payment comes as US President Joe Biden's administration and Iranian officials are expected to begin their sixth round of indirect talks in Vienna this weekend about how both sides might resume compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal.
Under the deal with key world powers, Iran limited its nuclear program to make it harder to obtain fissile material for atomic weapons in return for relief from US, European Union and UN sanctions.
However, Trump abandoned the deal in 2018, arguing it gave Tehran too much sanctions relief for too few nuclear restrictions, and reimposed sanctions that slashed Iran's oil exports. Iran then retaliated about a year later by violating the limits on its nuclear program.