UAE Denies Reuters Report of Releasing Frozen Iranian Funds

The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that reports it had agreed to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets were false. In a statement to CNBC, the government said its foreign ministry had confirmed the claims were “completely false and unfounded,” and that no frozen Iranian funds had been released, transferred, or eased through the UAE.

The denial came after Reuters reported, citing four unnamed sources, that the UAE had agreed to unblock the money as part of a tactical shift after hundreds of attacks on military and infrastructure targets in the emirates since the start of the U.S.-led war on February 28. According to the Reuters account, the UAE had not been hit by Iranian missiles in the past week, while Kuwait and Bahrain had suffered strikes.

Reuters quoted two regional sources saying the UAE had agreed to release a total of $10 billion, more than $3 billion of which had already been transferred. Two other people familiar with the arrangement said the total involved was $20 billion and that the move was agreed in return for ending Iranian attacks on the UAE. One source said the first tranche, worth $3 billion, had already been made available to the parties.

Reuters said it could not determine the source of the money, whether it belonged to the UAE, came from Iranian accounts frozen for years in the emirates’ banking system, or from another source. The report also noted that Dubai has long served as a financial conduit for Iranian businesses and individuals trying to bypass Western sanctions, including through oil sales, shell companies in free-trade zones, and informal money changers. The United States has been pressuring the Gulf state to dismantle those networks, and Washington has sanctioned UAE-based entities in recent years, saying enforcement inside the country has not met U.S. expectations.