Israel Matzav

Nuclear freeze not yet in effect but $8 billion in Iranian assets already released

The Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo reports that the freeze on Iran's nuclear activity has not yet gone into effect due to the need for 'final details' to be worked out between now and year's end (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). But Hassan Rohani and Ayatollah Ali Khameni are already laughing their way to the bank, because the Tehran Times reports that the United States of Obama have already released some $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets.

Iranian Government Spokesman Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht has confirmed news about releasing $8 billion of its blocked assets by the U.S. after Iran and the six major powers reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear program on Sunday.

The recent nuclear deal will have a great positive effect on the Iranian economy, IRNA quoted Nobakht as saying on Monday.

The former chairman of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Mines, Alinaqi Khamoushi, announced on Sunday that the U.S. has released $8 billion of Iran's frozen assets.

He said the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. plus Germany - in Geneva Sunday morning, was an opening up of Iran's economic relations with the world.

And what has to be done before Iran starts to fulfill its part of the bargain? Kredo explains.

Even as Iran and the P5+1 announced late Saturday night that they had reached a six-month interim deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear program while giving Tehran the ability to continue some uranium enrichment activities, it is now clear that the six-month freeze will not go into effect until the P5+1 negotiators and Iran agree to a final plan to implement the interim agreement.

“Technical details to implement the Joint Plan of Action must be finalized before the terms of the Plan begin,” a senior administration official told the Washington Free Beacon on Monday. “The P5+1 and Iran are working on what the timeframe is.”

Congressional sources confirmed that the freeze would not actually begin until the parties agree to sign a supplemental agreement that puts the framework into effect.

That means the six-month clock referenced by the administration and media has not yet started. Iran can continue its most controversial nuclear activities as negotiators work to finalize the interim deal reached over the weekend.

“There is no deal in place,” a senior congressional aide briefed on the deal told the Free Beacon. “The agreement signed this weekend was not an actual agreement—it was a list of ideas with no way to implement them.”

The source said that all sides are in a holding pattern of sorts until final details can be worked out.

Well, yeah except that, as noted above, there's an $8 billion cat that's already out of the bag.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Barack Hussein Obama, Hassan Rohani, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, John Kerry

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:16 AM