WASHINGTON -- The Iranian funds currently held in South Korea can only be used for humanitarian purposes while the United States will continue to hold Iran accountable for any destabilizing actions, a state department spokesperson said Monday.

Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the state department, also emphasized that the money had always been available to Iran for humanitarian use.

"Allowing Iran to use such funds for humanitarian purposes is consistent with long standing US policy to ensure that our sanctions do not prevent humanitarian goods and services from flowing to ordinary people, no matter how objectionable or problematic their government is," the department spokesperson told a daily press briefing.

His remark comes amid concerns that releasing the money currently frozen in South Korean banks may allow Tehran to bolster its pursuit of nuclear weapons or fund terrorist activities.

Earlier news reports said the US has agreed to the release of the Iranian funds in South Korea in exchange for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran.

"These funds have been available to Iran to use for humanitarian transactions, like food and medicine," Patel insisted.

"Iran's accounts in other countries have been used to purchase humanitarian goods and services and to conduct other non-sanctionable transactions, and this money, as we continue to move along the process and have these negotiations and discussions, any kinds of funds that move will be subject to the same rigorous restrictions," he added.

The department spokesperson reiterated that the US will continue to hold Iran accountable for any destabilizing activities.

"The use of funds like these for humanitarian purposes, for food, aid, things like that has always been applicable and allowed under US sanctions," he told the press briefing.

"As it relates to Iranian destabilizing activities in the region -- their funding of terrorism, their provision of drones to the Russian Federation, their crackdown on human rights, all of those things -- countering them is something that the United States is going to continue to pursue," added Patel.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed earlier criticism that releasing the Iranian funds in South Korea would constitute paying the largest ransom in history, while emphasizing that the US will have "full visibility" on where the money is spent.

"What is being discussed isn't a payment of any kind. These aren't US dollars. They aren't even taxpayer dollars. What's being pursued here is an arrangement where the Iranian people can, with the oversight of the US treasury department, Qatar and aid organizations, avail themselves of Iranian funds that have been held in South Korean account since 2018," she told a daily press briefing.

"So the only thing we have discussed with Iran is a process through which these funds could be assessed for humanitarian purposes," she added. (Yonhap)