Iran MP says U.S. release of $8 bn in frozen assets false

Iranian Member of Parliament Hamid Rasaei said reports that the United States has released about $8 billion of the Islamic republic’s frozen assets are “lies.”

A supporter of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rasaei cited a private conversation with a government spokesperson as the basis of his statement.

“Media outlets said the U.S. has released $8 billion of Iranian frozen assets. It seems the government’s spokesperson has confirmed this news but when I asked him about it, he said he hasn’t heard anything about it,” the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) quoted Rasaei as saying.

“It’s not clear where media outlets got this piece of news from. They’re trying to present a glass of poison as a sweet drink,” or a poison chalice, Rasaei added.

He also described some Iranian media outlets as part of “the enemies’ camps” and enquired: “Why do they publish such news?”

On Sunday, former head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce Alinaqi Khamoushi told the official IRNA news agency that the United States had released about $8 billion of the Islamic republic’s frozen assets.

Iran and the P5+1 powers on Sunday signed a breakthrough agreement to restrain Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

Iran’s deal with the P5+1 group; Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. plus Germany, has garnered a negative response from some Iranian hardliners.

Hard-line lawmaker Ruhollah Hosseinian said the deal was so vague and conditional that it may finally lead to a shutting down of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, reported the Associated Press.