A possible US-Iran agreement is meant to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but it could also unlock tens of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets. Some of the money has been inaccessible since the 1979 revolution, though most of it is later oil payments from countries including China, India, South Korea and Japan that were left stranded after Donald Trump withdrew from the earlier nuclear deal.
The most immediate issue is the gradual release of $24 billion. Analysts say that money could help the Iranian government strengthen the local currency and bring down inflation. Although asset recovery has featured heavily in the negotiations, estimates of the total vary widely, with Iran insisting the figure is at least $100 billion and experts putting it much lower.
According to The Wall Street Journal’s mapping of the funds, China is one of the biggest sources of frozen money, with $20 billion to $50 billion tied up there. The United States blocked part of those payments because most international transactions are dollar-denominated, and the Treasury can cut financial institutions off from the dollar system for sanctions violations.
Iraq also has $15 billion frozen, tied to purchases of electricity and natural gas from Iran. The Trump administration barred Iraq from continuing payments for those supplies. India accounts for another $7 billion, while South Korea has $7 billion more, later moved to Qatar under a prisoner-release arrangement with the United States.
Until October 7, the US allowed Qatar to transfer money received from countries such as South Korea to Iran for humanitarian purposes only. After Hamas’s attack, that policy changed and Washington ordered Qatar to stop the transfers immediately. Iran also has another $8 billion held in Japan, Luxembourg, Oman and even the United States.
