Mansour Tafazzoli, the director for international affairs of Parsian Bank has been quoted by ISNA news agency as saying that talks have also been carried out to activate accounts in nine 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. The goal of the Iranian banks, he said, is to move ahead based on the performance of the other side in implementing its commitments.
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany – 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. Iran said on Thursday that it had remove the core and that the IAEA inspectors are currently in Tehran to verify the move later in the day.
Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said earlier this week the CBI has started the proceedings for the much-awaited unfreezing of a total of around $30 billion 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 will be positive news for Iran and will accordingly show its effects on the Iranian economy.