Iran's Central Bank launches legal action against Bahrain over Confiscated funds

2021-08-04 - 8:35 p

Bahrain Mirror: The Central Bank of Iran announced taking legal action to file a lawsuit against Bahrain.

The central bank, based on the agreement on encouragement and mutual support of investment between the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain approved on 2003, began its legal action against the government of Bahrain to repay funds invested in banks in that country. 

According to the central bank, based on the country's monetary and banking law, managing the country's foreign exchange reserves is one of the duties of the central bank, and this bank has been investing in the banks of Bahrain. 

But since the signing of the JCPOA agreement, which prompted some Persian Gulf states to oppose the agreement, then officials of the bank, while anticipating the prospects of political relations, withdrew significant amounts of their investment deposits from Bahrain, but after severing diplomatic relations with the Bahraini government in In January 2015, Bahraini banks avoided reimbursing the remaining foreign exchange reserves of this bank and stopped cooperation.

Despite numerous correspondences and follow-ups, they even blocked the use of the mentioned assets to pay for Hajj pilgrimage and humanitarian affairs including releasing money to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Therefore, an investment lawsuit against the Bahraini government under the agreement on encouragement and mutual support of investment between the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain was placed on the agenda of the central bank.

This came after Bahraini news outlets published news on convicting the Bahraini Future Bank, some Iranian banks and bank managers of charge of laundering money in Bahrain.

The CBI has so far not received any notification or warning from Bahraini courts in this regard. "Any action of the Bahraini government and judiciary against the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran is contrary to the norms and rules of international law," the CBI noted.

Arabic Version