Iran to regain U.N. vote after South Korea pays dues

The Iranian flag flies in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria on July 10, 2019. REUTERS Lisi Niesner File Photo

SEOUL, Jan 23, Reuters - Iran is expected to regain its vote in the U.N. General Assembly after South Korea paid Tehran's delinquent dues to the world body with frozen Iranian funds in the country, South Korea said on Sunday.

In June, Iran had regained its U.N. voting rights after a similar payment, but said this month it had lost them because it could not pay its dues because of U.S. sanctions.

The United States, which joined its European allies this week, has said only weeks remain to salvage the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Then President Donald Trump took Washington out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing U.S. sanctions. Iran kept pushing well beyond the deal's nuclear restrictions and breached many of the deal's restrictions.

The finance ministry said on Friday that there was a payment of Iran's U.N. dues of about $18 million through the Iranian frozen funds in South Korea, in cooperation with other agencies such as the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the United Nations Secretariat.

The Seoul U.N. office was not available for comment outside business hours.

The South Korean ministry said that Iran asked South Korea to help pay the U.N. contribution with the frozen funds because of the loss of its right to vote in the 193-member General Assembly.

Tehran has demanded the release of $7 billion of its funds frozen in South Korean banks under U.S. sanctions, saying Seoul was holding the money hostage. A South Korean finance ministry official refused to say much Iranian frozen funds are left after the payment of U.N. dues, citing confidentiality laws.