Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani addresses a cabinet meeting in Tehran on April 8, 2020. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Billions of dollars in Iranian assets were frozen in the US and Europe in an effort to push Tehran into a nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed in July 2015.

In 2018 the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal and re-imposed tough sanctions that have severely damaged Iran’s oil sector and its wider economy.