In a statement on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry responded to an article titled “Who emboldened the Koreans?” which was published in the Iranian press.
What follows in the text of the announcement, according to the Foreign Ministry’s official website:
“1. Basically, there was no phone call between the spokesperson of the South Korean Foreign Ministry and the esteemed ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Seoul, and this is a baseless claim altogether.
2. The meeting which took place was between the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Seoul and the director-general for Middle East affairs. In the meeting, no mention was made about the comments of the esteemed governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).
3. Following the meeting, the Korean news agency Yonhap published a groundless report indicating the Iranian ambassador had been “summoned”, and attributed certain remarks to the ambassador.
4. Over the past two years, high on the agenda and a pivotal issue in Iran-South Korea relations have been to provide access to the financial resources of the central bank in South Korea. Accordingly, in addition to receiving South Korea’s special envoy, dozens of meetings were held in Tehran and Seoul with South Korean authorities. Obviously, the nature of the responsibilities of the foreign ministry requires that it should not publicly announce all of its activities.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi issued a fresh warning to South Korea over billions of dollars of Iranian funds blocked in the Southeast Asian country, signaling that Tehran would not be happy with a partial reimbursement through humanitarian shipments.
Iran has had enough of various promises made in South Korea about returning the funds that have been illegally blocked by two banks over US sanctions, Mousavi said.
