Iran’s president claimed to have reached a “good understanding” with Qatar over the fate of $6 billion of frozen assets deposited in a Qatari bank last year despite persistent assurances from the United States that it retains the right to prevent Tehran from accessing the funds. Speaking in Tehran following his return on October 4 from a summit in Doha, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he had raised the matter during talks with Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, during which six cooperation agreements were signed between Tehran and the wealthy Gulf emirate, official Iranian media outlets reported. “In Qatar, we have $6 billion in assets. The issue was discussed during a meeting between the governors of the two countries’ central banks, as well as the meeting with the Qatari Emir; We reached a good understanding in this regard,” Pezeshkian said.
The funds were originally transferred in September 2023 from a bank in South Korea, where they had been sitting since 2019, following the total ban on Iranian oil exports imposed by former President Donald Trump’s administration. At the time of the transfer, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that “Iran will not be able to access the funds for the foreseeable future,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared: “We have strict oversight of the funds and we retain the right to freeze them.” Last October — less than a week after the massacre carried out by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists in Israel — Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo announced that the United States and Qatar had reached agreement on blocking Iran from accessing the funds. Both Iran and Qatar have provided extensive financial and military assistance as well as diplomatic cover to their Hamas allies in the year since the October 7 atrocities.
Expert Analysis
“There is no way for the Qataris to make this money accessible to Iran without the U.S. government’s permission. We were told the money was frozen after October 7, so the administration needs to confirm whether the funds are still indefinitely frozen or not.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor
“When these funds were transferred to Qatar last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was crystal clear that the United States has ‘strict oversight of the funds and we retain the right to freeze them.’ On the day that the world mourns the atrocities of October 7, there is no more opportune time for Washington to remind Doha of this line in the sand.” — Joe Truzman, Senior Research Analyst and Editor at FDD’s Long War Journal
Source » fdd