2 min readUpdated: Apr 11, 2026 03:28 PM IST
A senior Iranian source has told news agency Reuters Saturday that the US had agreed to release Iranian frozen assets, which were held in Qatar and other foreign banks, even as American and Iranian delegations arrived in Islamabad for ceasefire talks. This is seen as a significant development in view of reaching a deal with Washington in talks in Pakistan.
A second Iranian source said the United States had agreed to release $6 billion of frozen Iranian funds held by Qatar, the report added.
The United States has not made any public comments on the issue of unfreezing assets.
The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters that unfreezing the assets was “directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”, which is expected to be a key issue in the talks.
FUNDS FROZEN FOR NEARLY A DECADE
The $6 billion was first blocked in 2018 and was scheduled to be unlocked in 2023 under a prisoner exchange agreement between Washington and Tehran. However, the Biden administration re-froze the assets after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, given Hamas’s ties to Iran. At the time, US officials indicated Tehran would not be granted access to the money indefinitely and that Washington reserved the authority to lock the funds down entirely.
The money originated from Iranian crude exports to South Korea and was trapped in South Korean banking channels after Donald Trump, during his first presidency, withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement and reinstated sanctions in 2018.
As part of the Doha-brokered prisoner swap finalised in September 2023, the funds were moved into Qatari-held bank accounts. The deal saw five American detainees freed from Iranian custody in return for the release of the frozen assets and five Iranian nationals held in the US.
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US officials maintained at the time that the money could only be spent on humanitarian needs — routed through vetted suppliers for essentials such as food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and agricultural products entering Iran, all under the watch of the U.S. Treasury.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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