TEHRAN, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. dollar lost some value against the Iranian currency rial in the Iranian market on Wednesday amid the increased likelihood of Iraq and South Korea releasing Iran's frozen assets, as well as a breakthrough in Vienna talks, according to latest media reports.
By 12:00 p.m. (0830 GMT) Wednesday, each dollar was sold at 285,600 rials in the Iranian free market, while the average price of one dollar stood at 291,000 rials on Tuesday.
The Iraqi Electricity Ministry spokesman Ahmad Mousa al-Abadi has announced that his country is ready to settle its entire electricity imports debt to Iran, and will soon deposit the money in an account in the Trade Bank of Iraq, the official news agency IRNA reported.
The eighth round of the negotiations on the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is being held between Tehran and the other remaining parties to the agreement.
Latest reports from Vienna indicate that South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun is expected to hold talks in the Austrian capital this week with Iran and world powers to resolve the issue of frozen Iranian assets held in the Asian country, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
It added that the delegation "would explore ways to resolve the issue of frozen Iranian assets in Korea" through consultations on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations with Tehran and in coordination with Washington, Paris, Berlin and London.
Iran has repeatedly demanded the release of its frozen assets in other countries as a result of U.S. sanctions, including about 7 billion dollars in South Korea. Since 2018 and in the aftermath of U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA under former President Donald Trump, South Korea has stopped making payments to Iran.
Seoul owes the money to Tehran over its gas condensate purchases, and any release of the Iranian assets would need to be approved by Washington, analysts said.
Experts here believe that the release of the Iranian assets and their subsequent injection into the domestic foreign currency market can help significantly increase the value of the rial.
They also believe that the senior South Korean official's presence in Vienna signals progress in the ongoing nuclear talks and raises the possibility of an agreement among the negotiating teams, constituting another factor contributing to the dip in the dollar's value against the rial.
With the United States indirectly taking part, the Vienna talks started in April 2021 between Iran and the P4+1 countries, namely Britain, China, France and Russia plus Germany, to revive the JCPOA.
The 2015 nuclear deal eased the previous U.S. sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran's curbing of its nuclear program, which Western countries have suspected as an attempt to create nuclear weapons despite Iran's insistence that it is peaceful.
In recent days, diplomats from all sides have indicated they are hoping to have a breakthrough by the end of January or early February, but sharp differences remain with the toughest issues still unresolved. Enditem
