US eyes Iranian assets to pay Gulf allies' war bill
Scott Bessent has directed the Treasury to study using frozen Iranian assets and seized ships to help Gulf allies recover from war damage.
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has directed the department to study how frozen Iranian assets could fund Gulf allies' recovery.
- Those assets may include frozen accounts and ships the US previously seized.
- Iran is demanding the release of $24 billion in frozen assets as a condition for peace.
- The move came a day after a wave of Iranian strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent instructed the department on Saturday to find a way to put frozen Iranian assets and previously seized vessels toward helping Persian Gulf allies recover from damage inflicted in the war with Iran. The announcement landed a day after a wave of Iranian strikes hit Kuwait and Bahrain, two states Washington counts among its closest partners in the region.
The premise sounds simple enough: whoever caused the damage should help pay for it. In practice it is far more tangled. According to a source close to the secretary who spoke to CBS News, Bessent has asked allies to compile comprehensive estimates of everything damaged in the conflict. Only once those figures reach his desk can Washington gauge how much frozen Iranian money it could realistically redirect.
Where exactly would the recovery money come from?
The assets in question are not an abstraction. They consist of concrete accounts that have sat frozen for years under US sanctions, along with ships the United States seized during earlier operations against Iranian oil trade. A source close to Scott Bessent, via CBS News, said the Treasury would further assess whether that property can even be used to finance repairs for damage already done.
The legal side is the main brake here. Frozen assets are not the same as assets that have passed into US ownership, so handing those funds to allies opens a string of questions about jurisdiction, litigation and international law. That is precisely why Bessent ordered a review rather than an immediate payout. The Treasury first has to establish what among the seized and frozen holdings can actually be touched, and what stays bound by contracts and prior rulings.
For the Gulf allies, though, the message out of Washington carries weight on its own. Kuwait and Bahrain, both targeted in the latest wave of strikes, are being told that the bill for the damage will not fall on them alone.
What is Iran asking for in return?
The other side of the table reads the very same assets in the opposite way. Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to the supreme leader, told CNN that peace hinges on the release of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets. So the same money surfaces at once as a US bargaining chip to compensate allies and as Iran’s condition for ending the fighting.
That collision of two readings of one pot of money shows just how narrow the negotiating space is. Washington wants the frozen assets steered toward Kuwait and Bahrain, while Tehran regards that same property as its own and wants it back before agreeing to any de-escalation. Until those two demands move closer, it is hard to see where the middle ground sits.
For the outside observer, one question will shadow every statement from both capitals: will the $24 billion become a bridge to peace or another wall between the sides? And do you think it is fair for an aggressor to pay, with its own assets, for the damage it caused?
