Assets previously blocked by Washington by various means reportedly total more than $100 billion
A billboard regarding the US and Iran talks outside a media facilitation center, Islamabad, Pakistan, April 11, 2026. © AP Photo/Anjum Naveed
Washington has agreed to release frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar and other foreign jurisdictions, a move seen as a sign of “seriousness”
in reaching a deal between the US and the Islamic Republic, Reuters
reported on Saturday, citing a senior Iranian source. Negotiators from
both countries have arrived in Pakistan for talks.
High-level
Iranian and US delegations arrived in Islamabad on Saturday to continue
negotiations on a proposed peace framework. Some elements of the plan
have been circulated in media reports, although no official details have
been released by either side.
Unfreezing the assets is “directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”,
a key issue in the talks, an unnamed official told the news agency. The
source did not disclose the amount, while a second Iranian official
said the US was ready to release $6 billion held in Qatar.
However, CBS News reported, citing a senior US official, that the White House hasn’t agreed to authorize release of the funds.
The
exact value of Iran’s frozen assets remains unclear, though by some
estimates the figure exceeds $100 billion. It includes funds immobilized
directly in the US, assets restricted abroad, oil revenues in escrow,
and central bank reserves blocked due to US secondary sanctions.
The $6 billion now held in Qatar was transferred there in September
2023 under a US-Iran prisoner swap mediated by Doha, involving the
release of five Americans detained in Iran and five Iranians held in the
US. Washington said the money would be limited to humanitarian use,
with payments only to approved vendors under US Treasury oversight.
However,
following the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Iranian ally Hamas,
the administration of then-President Joe Biden re-froze the funds,
stating that Iran wouldn’t be able to access the money for the
foreseeable future and that Washington retained the right to fully block
the account.
The funds, originally frozen in 2018, stem from
Iranian oil sales to South Korea and had been held in South Korean banks
after President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran and withdrew
from the nuclear deal during his first term in office.