Iran: US ‘can NOT renege’ on deal to transfer $6 billion through Qatar for hostages

Tehran demands funds promised in exchange for 5 American prisoners released in August, after Washington halts process in wake of devastating Hamas assault on Israel

By Agencies 13 October 2023, 1:15 pm

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Iranians attend a gathering in Tehran to express their solidarity with Palestine after Hamas terrorists launched a brutal onslaught from the Gaza Strip, October 2023. (AFP)

Iran said Friday the United States “can not renege” on an agreement to transfer $6 billion in frozen funds through mediator Qatar following Hamas’s catastrophic assault on Israeli communities.

The US and Qatar reached an agreement Thursday that Doha will not act on any request from Tehran for the time being to access the funds that were unblocked as part of a prisoner swap in August.

Tehran, which financially and militarily backs Hamas, has come under intense scrutiny since gunmen from the Islamist terror group rampaged across Israel’s southern border at the weekend, slaughtering people in their homes and on the streets in an onslaught that claimed more than 1,300 lives. An estimated 150-200 were also abducted to the Strip. Their fate is not yet known.

Iran has insisted it was not involved, but celebrated the Hamas massacre as a “success.”

The White House has said it has yet to uncover information that Iran was directly involved in the multi-pronged Hamas assault but froze the funds nonetheless.

Israel has responded to the attack by pounding Hamas targets in the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least 1,537 people in the Palestinian territory, according to Hamas health officials.

File: US officials arrange a group photo after freed Americans Siamak Namazi (not pictured), Morad Tahbaz (second left) and Emad Shargi (front center), as well as two returnees not yet named by the US government, who were released in a prisoner swap deal between US and Iran, arrived at Davison Army Airfield, Virginia, September 19, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)

“The US government knows that it can NOT renege on the agreement,” Ali Karimi Magham, spokesperson of Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations, said late Thursday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The money rightfully belongs to the people of Iran, earmarked for the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to facilitate the acquisition of all essential requisites for the Iranians,” he added.

The transfer of the frozen funds from South Korea to Europe and later to Qatar was part of a deal that saw the United States and Iran exchange five prisoners last month.