The official, Valiollah Seif, said on Wednesday that the new funds
would be transferred to Iran's account "in the next three days", but
did not state the amount.
Under a November 24 accord reached in Geneva, Iran is to scale back
its nuclear activities for six months in exchange for sanctions
relief from six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany,
Russia and the United States.
Iran agreed to suspend enrichment of uranium to 20 percent fissile
concentration — a relatively short technical step away from the
level required for nuclear bombs — and is taking action to
neutralize its holding of the material.
In return, it is gradually winning back access to $4.2 billion of
its oil revenues frozen abroad, along with some other sanctions
relief.
The funds will be paid out in eight transfers on a schedule that
started with a $550 million payment by Japan on February 1.
Last month, banking sources said South Korea was set to make two
payments in March totaling $1 billion.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has a pivotal role in
checking that Iran is living up to its part of the accord. Its head,
Yukiya Amano, indicated on Monday that Iran had made sufficient
progress to receive a scheduled March 1 installment of $450 million.
A third payment of $550 million is due on March 7.
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The nuclear agreement aims to give the two sides six months to reach
a comprehensive deal to address all questions about whether Iran
seeks nuclear arms.
Iran denies any such intention, saying its program is for solely
peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and producing
medical isotopes.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna,
writing by Parisa
Hafezi; editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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