Iran takes possession of 13 ton hoard of gold

Oren Dorell | USA TODAY

Iran took possession of a 13-ton hoard of gold — worth nearly $500 million — held up by sanctions after working out a deal on the sidelines of nuclear talks in Vienna, the country's central bank chief told Iranian media.

"A sum of 13 tons of gold that had been purchased before and was deposited in South Africa in the past two years and could not be transferred to Iran due to the sanctions … was delivered to the Central Bank of Iran's treasury last night," Valiollah Seif, who heads the Central Bank of Iran, said Wednesday, according to the Iranian state-owned Fars News.

Seif said the transfer is evidence the talks are having some success. Fars News reported the retrieval of the gold was the result of months of hard work. That much gold is worth about $485 million based on current price per ounce.

The State Department said the timing was unrelated to the current talks but rather stems from an interim agreement reached in November 2013. That deal suspended sanctions on trade with Iran in gold and precious metals starting January 2014.

Iran is negotiating with the five original nuclear members of the United Nations Security Council — the USA, Britain, France, Russia and China — plus Germany on a deal to lift crippling international sanctions in return for limits on Iran's nuclear program. Negotiators extended a Tuesday deadline for another week and are now seeking a deal by July 7. The agreement is intended to ensure Iran's nuclear program remains as peaceful as that nation claims it is.

Secretary of State John Kerry, in Vienna since June 26, met Thursday with his counterparts from Britain, China, the European Union and Iran.

China's foreign minister Wang Yi told reporters he believes there's a "high probability" of reaching "a fair, balanced and just agreement," the AFP reported.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters "we're not at any kind of breakthrough moment yet, and we will do whatever we need to do to keep the momentum," according to the Reuters news agency.

In Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other senior officials met with Yukiya Amano, chief of International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' chief weapons inspector, according to Iranian press.

Among the still outstanding issues is to what extent Iran will cooperate with an IAEA investigation into evidence of past weapons research, and what access Iran will provide to international weapons inspectors charged with verifying the country complies with the terms of any deal. World powers want Iran to provide access to any suspect site, including military sites, while Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei has ruled out "unusual" inspections to military sites.