The US and Qatar are working to make billions of dollars in frozen funds available to Iran for humanitarian spending as a financial incentive under the deal to end the war, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The deal would allow Iran to begin by accessing $6 billion currently held in Qatar, specifically for purchases of food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods. The purchases would be made by Iran’s central bank with cash from oil sales, which have been frozen overseas by sanctions, the people told WSJ.
In 2023, the US issued a waiver sanction in 2023 under the Biden administration, allowing $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue to be transferred from South Korea to Qatar to be spent on humanitarian goods for Iran, but the funds were frozen after the October 7th massacre.
Framework could become precedent
The current plan may become a precedent for releasing more Iranian funds in the future, including the first pool of $24 billion frozen that Tehran wants released immediately, the people said.
Iran has not yet agreed to this framework, and it has been added to the list of matters to be discussed in future talks between the US and Iran. The US has already pledged to make Iran’s frozen assets “fully available for use,” and one US official said the funds will remain available as long as Iran participates in negotiations, the WSJ reported.
“We have taken their money; it isn’t our money, it is their money, and we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we’re going to have to give it back,” US President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday.
Iran’s frozen assets are currently locked up by sanctions in countries including China, India, Iraq, and Qatar.
Negotiations over funds frozen in Qatar began in late May, with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, leading a delegation to Doha to discuss plans, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ.