DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president declared Monday that $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds held by Qatar are set to be released, even as ongoing hostilities in the Persian Gulf put pressure on negotiations between Iran and the United States.
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s remarks appear designed to build domestic support for the interim agreement, especially as Iran’s hold over the Strait of Hormuz has come under pressure. Recent efforts have sought to open Oman’s territorial waters to both incoming and outgoing traffic through the Persian Gulf. Iranian attacks and threats had halted the movement of cargo ships and oil tankers through the strait — a waterway through which roughly one-fifth of all globally traded oil and natural gas passed during peacetime — triggering a worldwide energy crisis.
Though the strait runs through the territorial waters of both Iran and Oman, it has long been treated as an international waterway. In recent days, Iran attacked vessels twice along a route near the Omani side of the strait, prompting retaliatory U.S. airstrikes and raising fears that peace negotiations could be thrown off course. On Sunday, Iran also launched drone and missile attacks directed at Bahrain and Kuwait.
Pakistan, which is serving as a key mediator in the talks, indicated that negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over the terms of their interim agreement would pick back up on Tuesday. The Trump administration stated Sunday that nothing has been called off and that technical discussions remain on schedule. Iran has not yet confirmed whether it will participate.
Pezeshkian praised the interim deal in remarks published Monday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, describing it as “a great victory for the Iranian people.”
“Based on the plans made, $6 billion out of the total $12 billion of Iranian resources in Qatar will be released and returned to the country, and necessary follow-ups are being carried out,” he said, without providing further details.
Pezeshkian, who is considered a reformist within Iran’s theocratic government, is the most senior Iranian official to publicly reference the release of the Qatar-held funds. Qatar, along with Pakistan, has been playing a central mediating role in the negotiations. However, U.S. officials maintain that no frozen Iranian assets have actually been released. Qatar has not acknowledged any such transfer, and notably, Iran struck a tanker carrying Qatari crude oil during the weekend’s clashes in the Persian Gulf.
