Iran demands release of frozen assets as condition for agreement with the United States

Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said negotiations between Washington and Tehran are largely stalled over the issue of Iranian assets frozen abroad, in a televised interview broadcast Friday.

Iran has been subject to decades of U.S. sanctions that have weakened its economy and financial system. Many of its overseas assets were also frozen following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

’’If [Donald Trump] wants to reach an agreement with Iran, these $24 billion are a test,’’ Rezaei said in remarks translated from Persian and aired by the U.S. network CNN.

There are no official figures for the value of Iran's frozen assets, though local media recently estimated the total at between $100 billion and $123 billion. Rezaei said Iran is making the release of part of these assets a condition for any agreement with the United States aimed at permanently ending the war in the Middle East.

’’This is a test that the United States must pass to pave the way’’ for an agreement, added the former commander of the Revolutionary Guard, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic. ‘’This is our money, not the United States'.’’

The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, triggering a conflict that has rattled the global economy as it spread across the Middle East through Iranian retaliatory attacks. Tehran and Washington agreed to a cease-fire on April 8 through Pakistani mediation, but hostilities have resumed in recent days, particularly around the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping route for global energy supplies that Iran has blockaded.

Rezaei warned that Iran ‘’would expand the conflict’’ beyond the Gulf if the United States resumed large-scale hostilities.

’’We will give another dimension to the war by attacking American bases beyond those targeted so far,’’ he said, while adding that ‘’the probability of war is low.’’