President Donald Trump is considering a deal with Iran that would return $20 billion in frozen assets back to the U.S. adversary, a new report alleges.
Trump and his proxies are negotiating over a three-page plan to permanently end hostilities, with an element of the discussion being the unfreezing of billions in Iranian funds in exchange for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium, four sources tell Axios.
The site reports that there has been steady progress toward a deal this week, but “significant gaps remain.” Trump, 79, announced just before markets opened on Friday morning that the Strait of Hormuz was back open.
Reached for comment, the White House refused to confirm or deny the report to the Daily Beast.
“Only announcements from President Trump or the White House—not anonymous sources—should be taken as fact,” said White House Spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “Productive conversations with Iran continue, but we will not negotiate via the press.”
Such a deal, worth $20 billion to Iran, would have likely enraged the Trump of old. He was among the loudest critics of former President Barack Obama’s decision to release tens of billions in Iranian funds under a 2015 nuclear deal.
Trump called Obama’s deal “disastrous” and “catastrophic” while on the campaign trail in 2016, years before he withdrew from the nuclear deal during his first presidential term.
Trump was especially miffed by a Wall Street Journal report that said the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Tehran—the first payment of a $1.7 billion settlement—that coincided with the release of four American prisoners. Trump criticized that payment as recently as this month.
“Very importantly, I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said on April 2. “A disaster. Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash—green, green cash. Took it out of banks from Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. All the cash they had.”
Trump’s discussions with Iran now involve significantly higher figures.
The United States pitched unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian funds during initial discussions, according to Axios’ sources. Iran reportedly countered by demanding that $27 billion be unfrozen.
A deal involving tens of billions of dollars is not the only option for peace being weighed, Axios reports. It writes that the U.S. is demanding that Iran agree to a 20-year moratorium on nuclear enrichment. Iran countered with five years, and Axios reports that mediators are still trying to close the gap.
Such an agreement would permit Iran to have nuclear research reactors for the production of medical isotopes, but would require it to pledge that all of its nuclear facilities be above ground and its existing underground facilities go out of commission.
Trump was animated on Truth Social as he touted the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says will only continue until the end of its temporary ceasefire agreement.
“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” he ranted.
The president added, “THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED.”
Trump made no mention about whether a de facto $20 billion payment was part of that negotiation.
