US, Qatar agree to prevent Iran from accessing $6B from prisoner deal: Reports

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US and Qatar agreed to re-freeze a $6 billion fund that Washington released for humanitarian purposes as part of a prisoner swap deal with Iran, according to multiple reports published Thursday.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo disclosed the agreement between Washington and Doha during a meeting with Democrats in the House of Representatives earlier in the day, according to media reports. The Punchbowl news website first reported on the agreement.

The funds had previously been frozen in a South Korean bank but were transferred to Doha as part of a prisoner swap deal that saw five Americans in Iran released from custody and flown out of the country in September.

The $6 billion was released on condition that Iran access it solely for humanitarian purposes. Any transactions are supposed to be approved by the US beforehand.

The Biden administration has yet to determine if it will free up the funds at a later point, the Washington Post newspaper reported. But Adeyemo told lawmakers that the money "isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

All the reports have cited anonymous sources.

The White House declined to confirm the reports.

"I'm not going to talk about diplomatic conversations, one way or another," spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. "What I can tell you is that every single dime of that money is still sitting in a Qatari bank, not one dime of it has been spent."