TEHRAN – China owes Iran €22 billion in oil and gas debt, vice president for planning and strategic supervision Mohammad Baqer Nobakht has said.
In this line, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani traveled to China on Tuesday to discuss mechanisms for paying the debt.
China is Iran’s biggest trading partner, Larijani said before heading to China.
Iran was one of the top five suppliers of crude oil to China this year and overall production increased, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly market report.
On August 2, China repeated its opposition to tougher U.S. sanctions on Iran after the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at halting Iran’s oil exports.
The chairman of the Majlis Planning and Budget Committee said on Saturday that $100 billion of Iran’s money is frozen in foreign banks because of the sanctions imposed on the country.
In addition to the $100 billion frozen in foreign banks, Iran has reserves of gold in the country and the assets in the National Development Fund (NDF) amount to over $30 billion, he said.
