The United States and Iran have sent conflicting signals about what it would take to reach a deal to end the war. But amid competing demands from both sides, Tehran has not wavered from one condition: getting access to billions of its own money now frozen in foreign banks.<\/p>\n
The funds have become a sticking point in talks<\/a>, with Iran insisting that meaningful negotiations cannot begin without the money\u2019s release, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n But a senior U.S. administration official<\/a> who declined to be named told reporters on Sunday that while the question of Iran\u2019s frozen funds could potentially be part of a deal down the line, Iran would have to commit to giving up its highly enriched uranium first.<\/p>\n \u201cNo dust, no dollars,\u201d the official said, referring to President Trump\u2019s term for the highly enriched uranium, which he calls \u201cnuclear dust.\u201d<\/p>\n The money has become a key request for the Iranian government, which has been economically hobbled by decades of Western sanctions and recent wars with the United States and Israel. The conflicting views on the frozen funds suggest that Tehran and Washington are far apart on a peace agreement.<\/p>\n Iran is seeking $12 billion out of $24 billion frozen abroad, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Qatar, where some of the funds are held, is a mediator in the discussions, and Iranian and Qatari officials met on Monday.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Tasnim said that there had been progress toward the release of the $12 billion but that details had not been finalized.<\/p>\n Allowing Iran access to the funds, especially before a deal is sealed, could be a tough pill for Mr. Trump to swallow. In a flurry of recent social media posts, he has been critical of the Obama administration\u2019s 2015 deal with Iran, which involved sanctions relief in exchange for Iran\u2019s limiting its nuclear ambitions<\/p>\n In January 2016, as the deal was being implemented, Tehran released four detained Americans<\/a> and the Obama government also sent $1.7 billion to Iran to settle a decades-old financial dispute. The first installment, $400 million paid in stacks of foreign currency, was flown into Iran. Critics saw the arrangement as a scandal, which came to be known as \u201cPallets of Cash.\u201d<\/p>\n