Seoul: The United States has granted South Korea a sanctions exemption, allowing the country to pay millions of dollars of overdue compensation to an Iranian investor over a 2010 dispute.
Seoul’s foreign ministry said it had received a "specific license" from the US Treasury Department allowing the South Korean government to pay compensation to Iran’s Dayyani Group.
"The license allows using the US financial system to pay compensation to the Iranian private investor," the ministry said in a statement. In 2018, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ordered Seoul to pay 73 billion won ($61 million) to the Dayyani Group over a failed takeover of Daewoo Electronics in 2010.
The license will serve as an "important foundation" for settling the dispute with the Iranian investor, the ministry added, expressing hope that "it will help improve bilateral relations". The announcement comes more than a week after South Korea sent top diplomats to Vienna for talks with US negotiators working to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The Islamic republic was South Korea’s third-largest Middle Eastern trade partner before the United States unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed crippling sanctions.
Iran had been a key oil supplier to resource-poor South Korea and in turn imported industrial equipment, household appliances and vehicle spare parts from Seoul. Last year, Iran threatened South Korea with legal action unless Seoul released the more than $7 billion in frozen funds for oil shipments. On the sidelines of the nuclear talks last week, South Korea said that it was looking for ways to resolve the issue of frozen Iranian assets in Korea.
NEW DELHI: Eleven men serving life imprisonment for gang rape and murders during the 2002 Gujarat riots have been...
MOSCOW: Russia has "no need" to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, its defence minister said on Tuesday, describing media...
TOKYO: A Japanese police officer got drunk, fell asleep on the street and lost investigation documents containing the...
BEIRUT: Drones attacked a Syrian outpost of the US-led anti-jihadist coalition on Monday but there were no injuries,...
TUNIS: Tunisian authorities said on Monday they intercepted or rescued over 200 migrants trying to reach Europe by sea...
PARIS: The Tibetan Plateau will experience significant water loss this century due to global warming, according to...
Comments