US, Qatar explore release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds, report claims | Today’s news

The US is coordinating a plan with Qatar that could free up billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets for humanitarian use, according to people familiar with the matter. The move is described as an early financial component of a recently reached agreement aimed at ending the conflict, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The plan, which has yet to be finalized, aims to give Iran access to the purchasing power of some of the estimated $100 billion in cash frozen around the world, starting with $6 billion held in Qatar. Under the deal, Qatar would allow purchases of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods ordered by Iran’s central bank with money raised from frozen Iranian assets, particularly cash from oil sales that have been blocked overseas by sanctions, the people said, as reported by the WSJ.

The facility could provide a template for dealing with additional stockpiles of frozen Iranian cash around the world and start the first tranche of $24 billion in frozen funds that Tehran wants to release as soon as possible, some of the people said.

Iran has yet to agree to the mechanism. It is one of many ideas Washington is expected to raise during the next two months of nuclear talks with Tehran after a deal to suspend the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the people said.

“Even limited asset releases act as economic lifelines and political signals of de-escalation,” said Sanam Vakil, Middle East director at London-based think tank Chatham House, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“They are one of the few concrete incentives Iran can secure with Washington to stabilize its currency and ease domestic economic pressure.”

But the situation remains uncertain as Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on X Thursday that US President Donald Trump had agreed to suspend hostilities “out of desperation”, suggesting the decision reflected pressure rather than goodwill.

That seemed to prompt Trump to hit back with his own post on social media: “We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did. They’re done! We’ll play out 60 days. They won’t get any money, not a dime!”

Under the deal, which Trump signed on Wednesday, the US pledged to make frozen Iranian assets “fully available for use” and to negotiate a mechanism to do so. A US official said this week that the funds would flow as long as Iran engaged productively in the talks.

The deal with Qatar would be in addition to the billions of dollars Iran stands to earn from oil sales, which Washington agreed to immediately after the deal was signed on Wednesday. In both cases, the US agreed to waive sanctions and issue permits as needed to facilitate transactions.

Critics of the deal say it gives Iran big profits before requiring it to make concessions on its nuclear program. Vice President JD Vance and other defenders of the deal say it will ease pressure on the global economy by opening a strategic waterway and averting further conflict, while limiting Iran’s financial benefits until it makes progress on meeting US demands.

The arrangement being discussed with Qatar would give the US greater visibility into Iranian purchases and more leverage over Tehran’s ability to continue using frozen cash.

“We took their money, it’s not our money, it’s their money, and we froze it,” Trump told reporters Wednesday at a Group of Seven meeting in France. “I think we’re going to have to bring it back at some point.

The money, which is largely from oil sales, is locked up by sanctions in countries such as China, India, Iraq and Qatar.

In 2023, the Biden administration issued a sanctions waiver that allowed $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue from South Korea, which bought the oil, to be transferred to Qatar as part of a deal for Iran to free five American citizens it was holding captive. The funds were supposed to be spent on humanitarian goods for Iran, but Biden froze them in Qatar after Iran’s ally Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Talks to release the Qatari funds began in late May, when Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf led a delegation to Doha to discuss the measure, people familiar with the matter said. The discussions helped restore momentum in talks toward a memorandum of understanding, the people said.

Iran is facing a severe shortage of foreign currency needed to pay for imports as its economy continues to deteriorate under a combination of sanctions, high inflation and a sharply weakened local currency, the WSJ reported.

While the release of frozen funds may provide some relief, analysts believe that a meaningful revival of Iran’s economy would depend on a substantial easing of sanctions, which US President Donald Trump and other senior officials have said will be granted only if Iran meets US demands over its nuclear program.

The United States has signaled it is ready to show more flexibility in accessing Iran’s blocked assets. The US is willing to be more flexible on access to Iran’s frozen assets. A senior administration official said Wednesday that Iran would gain access to the assets if it implemented the memorandum of understanding and would get more for what he called good behavior, such as handing over enriched uranium, the WSJ reported.