Iran Demands $24 Billion in Frozen Assets Released in Two Phases
Iran demanded the release of $12 billion in frozen assets in a potential deal with the United States and insisted that another $12 billion “should be transferred within 60 days” of signing the agreement, according to a source close to the negotiating team. Iran’s top negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf visited Qatar on Monday for talks aimed at “securing access to $12 billion in the first phase, as well as removing obstacles”. Iranian central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati joined the Doha delegation specifically to handle the frozen-funds dimension of the wider memorandum. Iran’s internet was simultaneously restored to a large extent on Wednesday after 88 days of near-total isolation from international networks.
Qatari officials had travelled to Tehran in recent days to discuss unfreezing the more than $6 billion in Iranian assets held by Qatar National Bank — a crucial issue for Tehran. The two-phase $12bn+$12bn structure is the strongest single Iranian-side signal that frozen-funds release is sequenced with sanctions waivers across the proposed 60-day window. A member of Iran’s parliamentary national security committee said on Wednesday that Tehran should make “maximum use” of the Strait of Hormuz because “the world” needs it, and called for changing the legal regime governing the waterway — the hardline Iranian counter-framing to the US position that the strait must be opened without tolls. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters spoke with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday and called for unimpeded freedom of navigation through Hormuz as a precondition for any lasting peace.