US signals Iran won't access its $6 billion in Qatar any time soon
By Humeyra Pamuk and Daphne Psaledakis
TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States signaled on Thursday that it would not grant Iran access to $6 billion in Iranian funds parked in a Qatar bank last month as part of a prisoner exchange and that it retained the right to completely freeze the account.
The question of Iranian access to the funds has been in the spotlight since Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on Saturday, killing more than 1,300 people and taking scores of hostages back to the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
«We have strict oversight of the funds and we retain the right to freeze them,» U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv, adding that so far Iran had neither accessed nor spent any of the $6 billion.
Blinken said the U.S. Treasury oversees any disbursement to ensure it is used only for humanitarian purposes.
A senior U.S. official indicated later on Thursday that Iran would not be given access to the money any time soon.
«Iran will not be able to access the funds for the foreseeable future,» the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
Several U.S. media outlets reported on Thursday that the United States and Qatar had agreed to stop Iran from accessing the money.
Iran has made no secret of its backing for Hamas, funding and arming the group, but Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Tehran was not involved in the Hamas attack on Israel.
Iran's U.N. mission said the U.S. government was «acutely aware that they cannot renege» on the deal reached over the money, which was transferred to Qatar from an account in South Korea to make it accessible for Iranian humanitarian needs.
The Iranian oil revenues had
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