In the run-up to the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers, there was talk of more than $100 billion of Iranian assets being unfrozen as a result of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Nonetheless, on July 15, Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), announced that the total amount of �usable funds� that will be released will be �$23 billion belonging to the CBI and about $6 to $7 billion belonging to the government.� Two days later, Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam, a leading member of the Majles Plan and Budget Commission, put the total figure at $130 billion. It is evident that such divergences will cause confusion.

The discrepancy created such controversy that Seif wrote a public letter to President Hassan Rouhani to explain the details, underlining that �though the total amount of foreign reserves is $107 billion, only $26 billion will be usable.�

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This article was written by Bijan Khajehpour for Al-Monitor on July 29, 2015. Bijan Khajehpour�is a managing partner at Atieh International, the Vienna-based international arm of the Atieh Group of Companies, a group of strategic consulting firms based in Tehran, Iran.