The United States has agreed to release frozen Iranian assets held in Qatar and other countries, an Iranian source told Reuters on Saturday. The move would mark a significant concession by Washington ahead of direct negotiations following a ceasefire.
If confirmed, the development would meet one of Iran's two non-negotiable preconditions for entering talks. The other condition is a ceasefire in Lebanon.
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Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had publicly warned as recently as Friday that talks could not begin unless Washington releases the blocked funds and Israel halted its strikes in Lebanon. Ghalibaf said the two measures had been "mutually agreed upon between the parties" but had "yet to be implemented."
The frozen assets question has a long and tangled history. The most recent significant transfer came in September 2023, when around $6 billion in Iranian oil revenues frozen in South Korean banks since 2019 were moved to restricted accounts in Qatar under a US sanctions waiver, tied to a prisoner exchange. Iran could access the funds only for humanitarian purchases, food, medicine, under strict US oversight. Those funds were subsequently blocked again after the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, due to Iran's links to the group.
The exact total value of Iran's frozen assets abroad is unclear, but several estimates place the figure above $100 billion. Before the war, Iran was already in acute economic distress, with year-on-year inflation running at over 68 percent,the highest since World War II, making the release of frozen funds a central demand in any settlement.
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The final agreement being negotiated is expected to include Iranian commitments not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief and the return of frozen assets, Reuters reported.
Iran's broader 10-point proposal, which forms the basis of the current negotiations, includes lifting all sanctions, the release of frozen assets abroad, and full payment of Iran's war-related damages. Washington has not publicly confirmed the scope of any asset release.
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