Russia has cleared a $1 billion loan to Iran for release; however, the transfer is stalled amid an “internal dispute” in Tehran over spending, Fars News Agency reported on 6 October.

According to Fars, the Planning and Budget Organization is pushing to use the money to fund vehicle imports, while the Oil Ministry wants to buy equipment for the oil industry and the Agriculture Ministry wants to put it toward imports of essential goods.

With no final decision reached, the government has not submitted the account details needed to complete the transfer.

The $1 billion marks the first installment of a planned $20 billion Russian credit line to Iran, first reported in June, according to Fars.

That month, Tehran unveiled plans for a ruble trading board to strengthen banking ties with Moscow, and an Iranian lawmaker said the $20 billion would be issued in rubles at an annual interest rate of six percent.

The two countries have been deepening economic and financial cooperation, expanding the use of their national currencies in bilateral trade to cut their dependence on western-controlled financial systems.

Iran remains under sweeping US sanctions targeting its oil exports, banking sector, and access to the global financial system.

Washington has escalated its economic strangulation campaign against Tehran in recent months, imposing secondary sanctions on foreign entities it accuses of facilitating Iranian transactions or extending any sort of financial lifeline to the country.

In September, the US Treasury sanctioned Russia’s VTB Bank over alleged correspondent banking ties with blacklisted Iranian financial institutions.

Washington has also targeted financial networks it accuses of helping Iran move funds and evade sanctions.

Several US allies have since fallen in line with Washington’s economic siege on Iran, moving against Iranian banks and its national airline on their own soil.

Turkiye revoked Bank Mellat’s license on 18 September, ending its 44-year presence in the country, and moved to ground Mahan Air after Washington sanctioned three Turkish firms servicing the airline.

The UAE followed on 23 September, cutting off Bank Melli Iran’s local branches from all dealings with Iran.

Weeks earlier, the US Treasury had stripped the UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr of dollar access over their transactions with Tehran.

On 4 September, it also sanctioned Turkiye-based Golden Global Bank and two of its Istanbul units, accusing them of moving tens of millions of dollars on behalf of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

These measures fall under Washington’s Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign to strangle the Iranian economy launched after the US failed to achieve its military objectives against the Islamic Republic.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/moscow-clears-1bn-loan-to-iran-transfer-delayed-over-internal-dispute