US rips ‘preposterous’ claim that UAE — or any other country– has released frozen Iran assets

Senior US officials have balked at a report that the US, United Arab Emirates — or any other country — has freed billions of dollars in frozen Iranain assets in exchange for Tehran halting all attacks on the UAE.

Reuters last week claimed two unnamed regional sources told them the UAE had agreed to hand over $10 billion — with more than $3 billion of that having been already sent — as part of a cease-fire side deal.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has since denied the report, as have senior US officials including Vice President JD Vance — insisting Iran would not be receiving any of the dough until it takes “meaningful steps” to denuclearize.

“It is interesting just reporting on this, and I really don’t know where it’s coming from, but we suspect that there are some elements within the Iranian hardline system who are trying to signal to their allies or maybe their domestic audience” because they oppose the tentative US-Iran peace proposal, a senior US official said.

“The very simple fact is $0 of unfrozen assets have been released by the United States or any other country,” the source said — adding it was “preposterous” to suggest the UAE made a “side deal” with Iran without the US knowing.

“Most of the sanctions and most of the international regulations that tie back to [unfreezing] assets — only the United States has control and influence over,” the official said.

Reuters had cited two additional “sources with knowledge of the arrangement” who claimed that the underhanded deal involved at least $20 billion, “adding that the move had been agreed in return for a halt to Iranian attacks on ⁠the UAE.”

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its denial that “these allegations are entirely false and unfounded” and stressed that “no frozen Iranian funds have been released, transferred, or facilitated through the UAE.”

The senior US source insisted that the Gulf states “love” the tentative peace proposal, and “because of that, you’re not going to see Qatar or UAE or any of these other countries cut side deals without the Iranians.

“We’re their friends. We’ve been in very close coordination, not just during this operation, but for a very long time,” the source said. “So, the idea that any of these countries would cut side deals with the Iranians is not just unlikely but preposterous.”

The rumors of asset-unfreezing later spread to include Qatar, with the Financial Times reporting Thursday that the US would allow Qatar to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets for Tehran to buy “humanitarian and non-sanctioned goods from the US” after the signing of the US-Iran peace memorandum of understanding.

But Vance denied that report from the White House podium Thursday, telling reporters that “a lot of this reporting is just fundamentally wrong.”

“I’ve seen some reports — I don’t know where this came from — that the Qataris have released billions of dollars in Iranian assets. That’s just not true,” he said. “It would be impossible for the Qataris to do that without our buy-in, and certainly without us seeing it.

“They don’t get one dollar of unfrozen assets — their money, not our money — but they don’t get one dollar of unfrozen assets until they actually perform under the deal,” he said.