Exclusive-Iranian source says US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian funds, Washington denies it
By Parisa Hafezi
DUBAI, April 11 (Reuters) – A senior Iranian source said on Saturday that the United States had agreed to release Iran’s frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks, but a U.S. official quickly denied the claim.
The senior Iranian source welcomed the alleged US move as a sign of “seriousness” in reaching a deal with Washington in Islamabad nL1N40U01A. The source said this was one of Iran’s demands “in messages conveyed to the US side” and that Tehran received US agreement for the release of assets.
The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters that unfreezing assets is “directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz” and that it is expected to be an important issue in the negotiations.
The senior source did not provide information on the value of the assets Washington agreed to freeze. A second Iranian source said the United States has agreed to release $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds held by Qatar.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FUNDS WERE FROZEN EIGHT YEARS AGO
The $6 billion, initially frozen in 2018, was planned to be released in 2023 as part of the US-Iran prisoner swap, but the funds were frozen again by President Joe Biden’s administration following attacks on Israel by Iran’s ally Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
US officials stated at the time that Iran would not be able to access this money in the near future and emphasized that Washington reserved the right to completely freeze the account.
The funds stemmed from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and were blocked in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018 — during his first term in the White House — and canceled the agreement between world powers and Tehran over its nuclear program.
In September 2023, the money was transferred to Qatari bank accounts pursuant to a US-Iran prisoner swap brokered by Doha. The prisoner swap involved the release of five U.S. citizens detained in Iran in exchange for the release of funds and the release of five Iranians held in the United States.
At the time, US officials said the money was limited to humanitarian use only and would be distributed under the supervision of the US Treasury to approved vendors for food, medicine, medical equipment and agricultural products destined for Iran.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Jan Harvey and Gareth Jones)
