Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the Treasury Department will assume an Iran frozen assets oversight role when funds are released under President Donald Trump’s interim agreement with Tehran.
“A very large percentage of it will go to buy U.S. foodstuffs and medicines,” Bessent said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Bessent said Treasury would oversee the funds in the Middle East, a statement that signals the administration is building guardrails around one of the most politically sensitive pieces of the deal: Iran’s access to money that has been frozen for years.
Iran Frozen Assets Oversight Terms Draw Republican Fire
The White House is facing pushback from some congressional Republicans who argue Trump’s agreement gives Iran too much, including sanctions relief and access to frozen funds, in exchange for a temporary negotiating window.
The deal, which Trump signed with Iran, requires Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, according to AP News. It also waives U.S.-backed sanctions, immediately allowing Iran to sell its oil freely.
Under the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. commits to issuing Treasury waivers for exports of Iran’s crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, along with all related services including banking transactions, insurance and transportation, according to Fortune. Those waivers take effect immediately after the signing and remain in place until sanctions are terminated.
Bessent Links Frozen Funds to Gulf Liability
Bessent went further on the liability question. He said the U.S. will draw on Iranian frozen assets to cover any damage Iran inflicts on Gulf allies, according to Al-Monitor, which also reported that Arab allies assisted the U.S. effort to freeze those funds in the first place.
Bloomberg reported Bessent’s direct statement on the mechanism: “Any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts.”
The Strait of Hormuz sits at the center of the economic calculus. AP News reported that the initial deal includes the reopening of the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas once passed before the war began.
The combination of sanctions waivers, oil market access, and the frozen-asset framework gives the Treasury Department an unusually direct hand in how the agreement’s financial terms play out on the ground. Congressional critics are now pressing the administration on whether that oversight structure is sufficient to prevent Iran from accessing funds without restriction.
