Iran, which has said it is shifting its money out of European accounts as the threat of UN sanctions mounts, will not move its currency assets to Asia, a deputy central bank governor said yesterday.
Tehran has bitter memories of its US assets being frozen shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution and many foreign and domestic media speculated that Iran was eyeing accounts in Malaysia, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
"Iran at the moment has no plan to transfer its currency accounts to those countries," Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad told the official IRNA news agency, when asked about the reports on Tehran shifting its holdings east.
The Central Bank of Iran confirmed that his remarks were a correct representation of policy but declined to comment further.
Several economists have speculated Iran could prefer to move its assets to Gulf and other Islamic accounts.
Iran faces referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to allay the world's suspicions it is seeking atomic weapons.
Tehran says it needs atomic power for generating electricity.
Central Bank Governor Ebrahim Sheibani said on Wednesday that Iran would repatriate its assets held abroad if necessary.
He acknowledged that Iran had begun moving its foreign currency from European banks, the ISNA news agency reported on Friday. However, Sheibani did not disclose how much of the nation's assets were being moved, nor did he name the countries that would receive them.
"We transfer the foreign exchange to wherever we deem it fit," he told ISNA, after reporters asked him whether Iran was transferring money to countries in Southeast Asia.
"We have already begun transferring and we are currently doing that," he said.
It is unclear how much of Iran's copious oil wealth is kept in foreign accounts. The Naftiran Intertrade Co, the trade and financing arm of the state oil company, is based in Switzerland.
Economists estimate Iran will have earned more than US$40 billion in oil earnings by the end of the 12 months to March. Of this, US$16 billion goes straight to budgeted government spending.
The rest goes to the Central Bank of Iran which keeps an unknown amount of holdings in foreign accounts.
The standoff between Iran and the West stems from widespread concerns, particularly in Europe and the US, that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. For its part, Iran insists that it is pursuing a nuclear program strictly for peaceful energy purposes.
Despite the overarching threat of sanctions, the American and Europeans said this week that they were not pressing for them against Tehran now.
Instead, the diplomats said they were pursuing a more limited effort to debate the issue at the UN Security Council, then send it back to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear monitor, in the hope of getting Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.
The strategy comes as a response to Russian and Chinese resistance to pressing for sanctions at this stage, despite their concern that Iran has violated its pledge to suspend its enrichment of uranium.
The Russians and Chinese say Iran might retaliate by breaking off talks over its nuclear program and forcing international inspectors to leave the country.
Indeed, Russia's top nuclear power official, Sergei Kiriyenko, said on Friday that Iran was warming to an offer by Moscow to defuse the crisis by allowing it to enrich uranium on Russian territory. The proposal is intended as a guarantee that Iran will not refine weapons-grade uranium.
The proposal is "extremely interesting" for the Iranians, Kiriyenko, a former prime minister appointed as director of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency last fall, said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, according to the Interfax news agency.
"We are fully prepared, up to the point where production units are ready," he said.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
‘GLOBAL THREAT’: MOFA said that it welcomes the ‘staunch US support’ and that ‘China again made spurious claims about Taiwan that do not accord with reality’ US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, while a senior Chinese military official warned the US to stop “collusion” with Taiwan in a rare one-on-one meeting yesterday, both sides said. Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the first US national security adviser to visit China since 2016, for three days of talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other high-ranking officials. Yesterday morning, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia (張又俠), vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official, at the Beijing headquarters of the commission.
PRESSURE: The Solomon Islands, acting under explicit instructions from Beijing, is aiming to prevent Taiwan from attending the next forum to be held in Honiara Australia has voiced support for Taiwan despite the Solomon Islands’ plan to undermine Taiwan’s status as an observer at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The forum is one of the most important international organizations in the Pacific region, made up of 18 member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan’s Pacific allies, associate members and observers, along with “dialogue partners” such as the US, Japan, Canada and the EU. The 53rd edition of the forum opened in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, yesterday. Taiwan has been taking part in the forum and related events as a “developmental partner” under the name Taiwan / Republic of