Unfrozen Bullion: 13 Metric Tons of Gold Returned to Iran From South Africa

According to the head of Iran's central bank, the Iranian working group in Vienna managed to agree on the repatriation of over a dozen metric tons to the country, outlining that gold had not been transferred to Tehran "because of illogical problems created under the pretext of sanctions."

After a month of "hard work", the Iranian government  received 13 tons of gold which it had purchased and deposited in South Africa for two years because of harsh sanctions, the country's Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif said on Wednesday.

"Thirteen tons of gold which has been held up in South Africa for two years and could not be transferred to Iran because of international sanctions, was released and delivered to Iran's Central Bank last night" — Seif told the news agency FARS.

The head of Iran's central bank also stressed that the gold was not transferred to Tehran "because of the illogical problems created under the pretext of sanctions." Seif attributed the gold transfer to the merit of the Iranian negotiators' work in Vienna, adding "sanctions relief against Iran and the country's regaining access to its financial resources and gold abroad is one of the main goals of the Vienna talks."

The P5+1 group of international negotiators, the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia, USA, and Germany, with the participation of the EU and Iran, are working on the final documents related to Iran's nuclear program. Under previous agreements, the final document was to be prepared before June 30, but in the next round of talks in Vienna, the parties decided to extend the talks until July 7.