Iran and the United States have reached an agreement under which the U.S. would release $12 billion in frozen Iranian funds, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator, said on Tuesday, as carried by Al Jazeera.
On his way back from Switzerland, where the first round of “encouraging” talks were held on Sunday and Monday, Ghalibaf told reporters that “the U.S. and Iran can work together to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”
Yet, the top Iranian negotiator said that the Strait of Hormuz would never return to the way it was before the war. Iran, however, will fully comply with international law, Ghalibaf said.
Early on Tuesday, oil prices dropped in Asian trade as reports emerged that the U.S. and Iran continue to make progress in the negotiations toward a potential deal on a lasting peace.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Sunday issued a temporary general license authorizing the production, delivery, and sale of crude oil, petrochemical products, and refined oil products of Iranian origin through August 21, 2026.
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, on Monday said that “Oil and petrochem exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, and major reconstruction & development plan launched for Iran,” noting that “Tireless Pakistani and Qatari mediation has delivered major progress to end Lebanon War.”
However, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian early on Tuesday warned in an X post that “The effectiveness of the talks depends on full commitment to the agreed obligations and their precise implementation.”
“Statements outside the agreed text do not help advance the negotiations,” the Iranian President said, after U.S. President Donald Trump has made some claims in recent hours, including that Iran has agreed to allow international inspections at its nuclear facilities and that any released Iranian funds would be used to buy U.S. agricultural products.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
