This payment was made on Friday in cooperation with the United States and the United Nations, after Iran had requested urgently
South Korea to pay the amount due, the South Korean finance minister said in a statement.
Payment of Iran’s UN contributions has been made
, confirmed the Iranian diplomatic mission.
As of Friday, UN sources had indicated that just over 18 million dollars from Iran had been released to Seoul to settle the UN. This amount was the minimum of the arrears owed by Tehran to the United Nations to be able to recover its right to vote within the organization, lost at the beginning of January.
Iran’s right to vote in the UN General Assembly should be immediately restored with this payment
, added the South Korean Ministry of Finance.
Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations provides for the suspension of the right to vote in the General Assembly for any country whose amount of arrears is equal to or greater than the contribution owed by it for the past two full years.
On January 11, the UN Secretary General announced that Iran had to pay 18.4 million dollars to recover its right to vote.
Last year, Iran had already lost its right to vote due to non-payment. Tehran had said it could not meet the minimum required for its debts to the UN due to economic and financial sanctions imposed by the United States.
After several months of negotiations, Tehran was able in June to use funds blocked in South Korea to pay the minimum debts required and recover its right to vote, just before the election of new members to the Security Council of the UN.
Iran has more than $7 billion in funds earmarked for oil exports which are frozen in two South Korean banks due to US sanctions.
Iran was South Korea’s third-largest trading partner in the Middle East before the United States unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed trade-crippling sanctions.
