The Trump administration is reviewing whether Iranian assets can be used to cover damage to Gulf allies after Iran launched attacks tied to the three-month-old war.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration is examining whether Iranian assets can be redirected to help Gulf allies repair damage from Iranian attacks, according to a source familiar with the matter, as the conflict between the United States and Iran continued to strain a fragile ceasefire and disrupt regional security.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has instructed a team to calculate the cost of damage Iran has caused to Gulf allies, the source said Saturday. The review also is expected to consider whether Iranian assets could be used to pay for repairs from any future destruction.
The source did not identify the specific type of assets under review. The description of the effort did not appear to be limited only to frozen assets.
The disclosure came one day after Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that any peace agreement ending the three-month-old war depended on the United States releasing $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets.
The possible use of Iranian assets for Gulf reconstruction could add another point of conflict to already troubled negotiations. The United States and Iran have been engaged largely through indirect talks over an interim agreement that would stop the war while leaving several major issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, for later discussions.
Those negotiations appear stalled. Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency reported that a minister from mediator Pakistan traveled to Tehran on Saturday carrying a letter for Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
The diplomatic effort came as fighting continued across the region. U.S. forces struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz early Saturday after intercepting Iranian drones that U.S. Central Command said threatened maritime traffic. Later Saturday, the U.S. military said two more Iranian attack drones that posed a threat to shipping in the strait were shot down.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country responded by targeting U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Kuwait’s army said it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential areas, causing material damage but no casualties.
In Bahrain, sirens sounded and residents were told to seek shelter. Kuwait and Bahrain condemned the strikes.
Iran later said it had struck U.S. bases in both countries with ballistic missiles. The U.S. military said six missiles were intercepted and a seventh failed to reach its target.
The fighting has complicated efforts to end the war and reopen a broader regional economic path. Tehran is seeking access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers from sanctions on crude exports, an end to the U.S. blockade on its ports and leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively blocked the waterway, where about one-fifth of global oil traffic moved before the war.
The conflict has increased oil prices and contributed to global inflation. OPEC+ is expected to agree Sunday to a fourth monthly increase in oil output targets, according to three sources in the oil-producing group, even as the war prevents several members from increasing production.
President Donald Trump is facing growing domestic pressure over rising gasoline prices and the public’s opposition to the war. In an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Trump said most of Iran’s drone and missile manufacturing facilities had been destroyed, but Iran still retained some missile and drone capacity.
“They have some missiles, they have some drones. I would say percentage wise, maybe 21% to 22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” Trump told NBC, according to excerpts released Friday.
The conflict also continued to affect Israel’s northern front. Israel’s military said Sunday that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. The attempted attack followed Lebanon’s statement that two army officers and a soldier were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle in south Lebanon.
The administration’s review of Iranian assets adds a financial dimension to the war’s widening fallout. While Iran is demanding access to frozen funds as a condition for peace, the United States is considering whether Iranian assets can instead be used to compensate Gulf allies for damage from Iranian attacks.
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