Iran has no obligation to buy US products with unfrozen funds

Iran’s Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said on Monday that Iran is not obliged to purchase agricultural products from the United States under the existing agreement for the release of Iranian funds. Speaking to the Tasnim news agency, Hemmati stated, “Based on the signed memorandum, there is no obligation to buy agricultural inputs from America.” He explained that the mechanism for using the “first 6 billion dollars” of Iran’s frozen assets is based on a 2023 agreement between Tehran and Washington covering essential goods and medicines. Hemmati added that Iran could still buy American agricultural products if their price and quality were more advantageous than those offered by other countries. He also noted that Iran imports billions of dollars’ worth of staple goods and medicines annually, and that Tehran’s priority is access to its own foreign currency reserves. According to Hemmati, other frozen Iranian assets are not necessarily limited to the purchase of essential goods and can also be used to buy other products not subject to sanctions. The statement came after US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iranian funds unfrozen under a future agreement with Washington would be used to purchase food from the United States. “All that money will go back into the purchase of food, which they desperately need,” Trump told reporters, claiming that Iran “has 91 million people, they can’t feed their people.”