DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s released assets abroad will be used to enhance domestic production, President Ebrahim Raisi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Last week, Iran and Washington reached an agreement whereby five U.S. citizens detained in Iran would be released while $6 billion of Iranian assets in South Korea would be unfrozen and sent to an account in Qatar that Iran could access.
U.S. officials have said Iranian funds will be put in a restricted account and used for humanitarian purposes such as buying food or medicine.
As a first step in what may be a complex set of manoeuvres, Iran allowed four detained U.S. citizens to move into house arrest from Tehran’s Evin prison, a lawyer for one said. A fifth was already under home confinement.
The United States would release some Iranians from U.S. prisons as part of the deal, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; editing by Christina Fincher)
