The United States is working with Qatar on a plan to make $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds available for humanitarian spending, an early financial incentive under the recently signed deal to end the war, people familiar with the matter said. The plan, which isn’t yet completed, would allow Iran to purchase food and medicine using money from oil sales locked up by international sanctions.
The $6 billion is currently held in Qatar as part of Iran’s estimated $100 billion in cash frozen worldwide. Under the proposed mechanism, Qatar would enable purchases of humanitarian goods ordered by Iran’s central bank using money drawn from those frozen assets, mainly cash from oil sales locked up overseas by sanctions, the people said.
“Even limited asset releases function as both economic lifelines and political signals of de-escalation,” said Sanam Vakil, Middle East director at Chatham House, a London think tank. “They are one of the few concrete incentives Iran can secure with Washington to stabilize its currency and ease domestic economic pressure.”
Iran still needs to agree to the mechanism, the people said. It is one of many ideas Washington is expected to raise over the next two months of nuclear discussions with Tehran following a deal to pause the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The facility could provide a template for dealing with other pools of frozen Iranian cash around the world and a start on the $24 billion in blocked funds that Tehran wants released as soon as possible, some of the people said.
The diplomatic effort has already drawn sharp public exchanges. Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on X on Thursday that President Trump agreed to pause hostilities “out of desperation.” Trump responded on social media: “We didn’t meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are FINISHED! We’ll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!”
Under the deal signed Wednesday by Trump, the U.S. is committed to making Iran’s frozen assets “fully available for use” and negotiating a mechanism for doing so. A U.S. official said this week the funds will flow as long as Iran is engaging productively in talks.
The arrangement with Qatar would be in addition to the billions of dollars Iran is expected to earn from oil sales, which Washington agreed to allow immediately upon signing the agreement. In both cases, the U.S. agreed to waive sanctions and issue authorizations as needed to facilitate the transactions.
The effort builds on a previous frozen-funds arrangement. In 2023, the Biden administration issued a sanctions waiver that allowed $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue to be transferred from South Korea to Qatar as part of a deal for Iran to free five American citizens. Those funds were frozen again after Hamas launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
Talks to arrange the release of the Qatar funds began in late May, when Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, led a delegation to Doha to discuss arrangements, the people said. The discussions helped restore momentum toward the memorandum of understanding signed this week.
Iran desperately needs access to foreign currency to purchase goods amid a spiraling economic crisis, rampant inflation and a collapsed local currency. While access to the frozen cash helps, analysts say repairing Iran’s economy will require significant sanctions relief, which Trump and other top officials say would only come if Iran delivers on U.S. demands on its nuclear program.
Critics of the deal say it gives Iran big payoffs before requiring it to make concessions on its nuclear program. Vice President JD Vance and other defenders of the agreement say it will ease pressure on the global economy by opening the strategic waterway and head off further conflict while limiting Iran’s financial benefits until it makes progress on U.S. demands.
Trump told reporters Wednesday at the Group of Seven meeting in France that the money is largely from oil sales locked up by sanctions in countries like China, India, Iraq and Qatar. “We have taken their money, it isn’t our money, it is their money, and we froze it,” he said. “At a certain point in time I guess we’re going to have to give it back.”
A senior administration official said Wednesday that Iran would get access to the assets if it implements the memorandum of understanding and will receive more for what he called good behavior, such as turning over enriched uranium.