LONDON — Western diplomatic sources said Iran has ordered the withdrawal of
assets from major banks in Europe amid concern that they would be frozen as
part of United Nations Security Council sanctions. The sources said the
Teheran regime has transferred many of these assets to China and to other East Asian states.
The Iranian assets were transferred to banks in China, Hong Kong,
Malaysia and Singapore. The sources said Teheran could transfer up to $8
billion to Asia, or 25 percent of Iran's hard currency deposits.
An Iran official has denied the reports.
Iran has confirmed the removal of assets from Europe, Middle East Newsline reported. No figures were
released.
"We are seeing movement of Iranian assets from several countries in
Europe, particularly France," a diplomatic source said.
The diplomatic sources said the Iranian Supreme Council has ordered the
Central Bank and several ministries to withdraw hard currency deposits from
European banks. The sources said the only country in Europe where Iranian
assets have been allowed to remain was Switzerland.
"We transfer the foreign exchange reserves to wherever we deem fit,"
Iranian Central Bank governor Ibrahim Sheibani said. "We have begun
transferring."
Later, Iranian deputy central bank governor Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad said
Teheran does not plan to move assets to Asia. He cited China, Malaysia and
Singapore.
"At the moment, Iran has no plan to transfer its currency accounts to
those countries," Mojarrad told the official Irna news agency.
The diplomatic sources said Teheran has concluded that the United States
and the European Union could succeed in their effort to submit the Iranian
nuclear file to the Security Council. They said this could result in the
freezing of billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets, a repeat of what
took place in wake of the Iranian abduction of U.S. diplomats and other
nationals in 1979.
Iran has been preparing for a revenue windfall amid sharply higher oil
prices in 2005. Teheran was expected to earn more than $40 billion in oil
revenues by the end of the Iranian year in March 2006.
The London-based daily A-Sharq Al Awsat reported over the weekend that
Iran plans to transfer $16 billion of the oil revenue to the state budget.
The newspaper said the remainder would be diverted to the Central Bank of
Iran.
