Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Qatar is bound to release $6 billion of Tehran’s frozen assets as the United States and the Islamic Republic look to de-escalate the recent flare-up in the Gulf region, with a resumption of talks in Doha expected in the coming days.
“Based on the plans made, six billion dollars out of the total 12 billion dollars of Iranian resources in Qatar will be released and returned to the country, and necessary follow-ups are being carried out,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted Pezeshkian as saying, per the Associated Press.
He further stated that the Memorandum of Understanding with Washington, signed on June 17, had lifted sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors, describing it as “a great victory for the Iranian people,” according to Reuters.
U.S. officials have not confirmed an unfreezing of Iranian assets, the news agencies reported.
“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MoU. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” Reuters cited a U.S. official on conditions of anonymity as saying on Sunday.
The fragile interim agreement was tested over the weekend after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly struck a commercial vessel off the coast of Oman with one-way attack drones on Thursday.
U.S. forces launched strikes against Iranian sites in response, prompting Iran to fire missiles and drones at U.S. military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain on Sunday.
“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added.
