Iran won’t be able to access a $6 billion account for humanitarian aid under an agreement between the U.S. and Qatar, reports said Thursday.
The agreement comes after Hamas’s attack on Israel and was communicated to House Democrats on Thursday by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. The Washington Post and other media outlets reported the deal.
Iran was to get access to the funds as part of a prisoner swap between the Biden administration and Tehran in September. The money was transferred last month to a bank in Qatar from another institution in South Korea.
President Joe Biden has been under heavy pressure from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to prevent Iran from using the funds as Teheran’s links to Hamas are examined.
The latest reporting on the news in the Middle East indicates Iran was aware that Hamas was planning an attack but, according to the Wall Street Journal, did not know the timing or scope of it. The report, citing U.S. intelligence agencies, was softer than the same newspaper’s assessment that Iran helped to plot the attack over several weeks.
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Myra P. Saefong contributed.
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