Israel is ramping up pressure on the United States to ensure that no Iranian assets get unfrozen as part of the ongoing ceasefire negotiations. The lobbying effort targets what has become the single most contentious issue in talks that have dragged on for months: who gets paid, how much, and when.
Iran wants access to roughly $24 billion of its frozen funds. Israel wants that number to stay at zero. And sitting in the middle, the Trump administration is trying to use those frozen assets as leverage without actually giving any of them up.
The money at the center of the standoff
As of June 12, 2026, Israeli sources confirmed an active campaign urging the US not to include any provisions for unfreezing Iranian assets in a potential deal. Iran, for its part, has proposed an initial release of $12 billion as a trust-building measure, roughly half of the $24 billion it’s seeking. That $24 billion itself is just a fraction of Iran’s total blocked assets, estimated between $100 billion and $120 billion globally.
The assets under discussion are primarily held in foreign banks. Qatar National Bank alone reportedly holds more than $6 billion in Iranian funds. The negotiations also touch on oil sanctions and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s petroleum passes.
