Following the horrific attack on Israel on October 7, the United States has quietly made Qatar understand that it should not distribute any of the funds to Iran.
Iran has been under international sanctions for many years in response to its nuclear enrichment program. The Times of Israel reports:
The US and Qatar have reached an agreement that Doha will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access $6 billion in Iranian funds that were unblocked as part of a prisoner swap last month, a US official said Thursday.
The move, which stops short of a full refreezing of Iranian funds in Qatar’s banking system, follows the massive onslaught by Hamas in Israel and continued Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s deal with Iran, in which $6 billion was unfrozen in exchange for the release of five detained Americans. The official who outlined the understanding between the US and Qatar was not authorized to comment and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The attack has reignited issues between Israel and the Arab world. To prevent Iran from claiming the mantle of Islam, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are backing off from getting closer to Israel. Fox News reports:
As part of the deal, Iran released five American citizens detained in Iran and the U.S. released five Iranian citizens being held in the U.S. The deal also created a blanket waiver to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar without fear of violating U.S. sanctions. Administration officials say the funds can only be used for “humanitarian needs like food and medicine.”
The unfreezing of the money took place nearly a month before Hamas terrorists launched a massive, deadly attack on Israel over the weekend.
The Biden Administration and Republican lawmakers will most likely be confronting each other over whether Iran already accessed the funds to pay for the operation.
