Qatar announced it was “committed” to managing $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian funds under an agreement within the framework of a prisoner exchange deal between the United States and Iran.
Tehran issued a warning following US reports of an understanding between Doha and Washington to stop the funds following the Hamas attack on Israel.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the state of Qatar is always committed to any agreement, and every step must be done through consultations with other partners that fund.
Earlier, Iran said the US could not “withdraw” from the Qatar-sponsored agreement to release $6 billion of Tehran’s assets.
On Thursday, the US said Iran would not gain access to $6 billion in Iranian funds parked in a Qatar bank last month as part of a prisoner exchange and that Washington retained the right to freeze the account entirely.
The question of Iranian access to the funds has been in the spotlight since Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on Saturday.
Last month, Washington and Tehran agreed to transfer $6 billion of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea to a particular account in Qatar, and Iran released five US detainees after moving money to accounts in Doha.
The deal sparked widespread controversy among circles. Republicans accused the Biden administration of submitting to what has come to be known as “hostage diplomacy,” referring to Iran detaining Western nationals on its territory before releasing them after receiving concessions.
“Iran will not be able to access the funds for the foreseeable future,” a senior US official, speaking anonymously, told Reuters.
Blinken stated in a press conference in Tel Aviv that Iran did not receive these funds and did not spend any of them.
“None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have been spent or accessed in any way by Iran. [..] We have strict oversight of the funds and retain the right to freeze them.”
On Thursday, several US media outlets reported that the United States and Qatar agreed to prevent Iran from accessing the funds.
– Qatari Iranian talks
The official IRNA news agency reported that the Governor of Qatar’s Central Bank, Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani, met his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad-Reza Farzin, on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Morocco.
The Qatari official asserted that his country is fully committed to all its obligations with Iran, and there is no obstacle to bolstering banking relations between the two countries.
“The rumors about the refreezing of Iran’s funds in Qatari banks were of no real value and were more like a joke and media game,” Al Thani said, according to IRNA.
The Iranian agency added that Farzin said that considering that Iran’s freed financial resources can be used in Qatar through SWIFT and with openings of LCs, technical communication between Qatari banks and six Iranian banks is underway.
“By establishing these technical connections, the operating banks send and operate the necessary payment orders,” he said.
Iranian oil revenues were frozen in Seoul after Washington, under former President Donald Trump, imposed a comprehensive embargo on Iranian oil exports and sanctions on its banks in 2019.
– The White House refuses to confirm
White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to speak about diplomatic conversations or “speculate … about future transactions.”
He said the money was intended to be disbursed “to approved vendors – that we approved – to buy food, medicine and medical equipment, agricultural products, and ship it into Iran directly to the benefit of the Iranian people.”
“Every single dime of that money is still sitting in the Qatari bank,” Kirby told reporters, adding: “The regime was never going to see a dime of that money.”
Meanwhile, Agence France Presse reported that Iran’s permanent mission to the UN spokesman Ali Karimi Magham said late Thursday in a post on X that the US government knows it can NOT renege on the agreement.
“The money rightfully belongs to the people of Iran, earmarked for the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to facilitate the acquisition of all essential requisites for the Iranians,” he added.
– Possible penalties
Speculation has increased about whether the United States will tighten the restrictions it imposes on Iranian oil exports following the surprise attack launched by the Hamas movement on Israel last week.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Wednesday that additional US sanctions could be coming in response to the attack on Israel by Hamas.
“I wouldn’t take anything off the table regarding future possible actions, but I certainly don’t want to get ahead of where we are now,” Yellen said during a press conference in Marrakech, Morocco, according to Bloomberg.
Yellen rejected a widely circulated idea that the United States had gradually eased some of the sanctions it imposed on Iranian oil sales as part of broader efforts to achieve diplomatic rapprochement.
Since Hamas’s unprecedented al-Quds Flood operation against Israel on Saturday, attention has turned to Iran because of its support for the movement for many years.
Despite the close relationship, Iranian leaders confirmed that their country was not involved in the Hamas attack on Israel but expressed their support for the operation.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden warned Iran against getting involved in the Israeli conflict with Hamas.
The US special envoy to Iran late Friday that he discussed with a senior official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry joint efforts to counter threats posed by Iran to the interests of the United States and Israel.
