Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said that the United States’ claims that Iran will spend its unfrozen assets to buy US agricultural products were false.
“The US only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks,” Ghalibaf said in a post on X on Thursday.
His remarks came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed President Donald Trump’s claim that a large share of Iran’s unfrozen assets would be used to buy US food and medicine.
Iran has insisted that it alone will decide how to spend its assets once they are released under a US-Iranian deal aimed at ending the Middle East war.
As part of the deal under negotiation, Washington has agreed to release $12 billion in frozen Iranian funds and temporarily suspend sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.
US Vice President JD Vance said on Monday that the assets had not yet been unfrozen. But he said that, if released, the funds would not be allowed “to finance terrorism” and could instead be used to buy US goods, including soybeans.
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‘Very interesting solution’
Vance said that US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, along with Qatar, a co-mediator in the talks, had come up with “a very interesting solution” to ensure those funds were not misused.
“If there are any frozen Iranian assets that are unfrozen, then we have approval over that process; the Qataris have approval over that process,” Vance said.
Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, rejected that assertion, saying Tehran would retain sole authority over how its assets were used.
