The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has invoked a previously signed agreement between Iran and Bahrain to retrieve investments it did in the tiny Kingdom in 2004.







"According to the country's monetary and banking laws, the management of the country's financial reserves is one of the duties of the Central Bank," a statement by the CBI said on Tuesday.

The statement added that the CBI invested in Bahraini banks in years that the relations between Iran and Bahrain were good after an agreement was signed between the two countries in 2004.

The CBI added that Iran withdrew some of its money from Bahrain banks before 2015 that the Iran nuclear deal or the�JCPOA turned some Persian Gulf Arab countries against Iran.

The CBI said that the Bahrani banks refused to give back Iranian assets after the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in early 2016.

It added that the banking relations between Iran and Bahrain ended after 2016 while the central bank officials�failed to bring back Iranian assets in the Bahrain banks despite huge efforts.

The statement further said that�due to the political, biased and discriminatory stances of the Government of Bahrain, the CBI took legal action against the Bahraini government�which is committed�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"�yesterday.

The move came after it was reported that Future Bank of Bahrain and Iranian bank managers and some Iranian banks, including the CBI�had been convicted of money laundering in a court in the Persian Gulf state.

After a court in Bahrain found the Central Bank of Iran guilty of criminal charges of money laundering on July 29,�the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman rejected as "baseless", "distorted", and "politically motivated" the allegations against the Iranian central bank and some other banks by a Bahraini court.