US considers Iranian assets for Gulf allies’ reconstruction, sources say
The revelation came one day after Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, told CNN that any peace agreement ending the three-month war depended on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the United...
Washington is preparing a new pressure point in its confrontation with Tehran: channeling Iranian assets toward Gulf states to help pay for reconstruction after damage blamed on Iran, according to a source familiar with the matter, as Iran followed its strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain with additional drone launches.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has instructed a team to calculate the cost of damage already suffered by Gulf allies at Iran’s hands, the source said, adding that Washington is also weighing the use of Iranian assets to cover repairs tied to any future destruction.
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The revelation came one day after Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, told CNN that any peace agreement ending the three-month war depended on the release of $24 billion in Iranian assets frozen by the United States.
The source did not say what type of assets Treasury officials were reviewing. The wording used to describe the proposed measures also did not appear to be confined solely to frozen assets.
Peace efforts appear to have lost momentum, though a minister from mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran on Saturday carrying a letter for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, according to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency.
People familiar with the matter said Scott Bessent has ordered a team to tally damage already inflicted on Gulf allies by Iran
US forces hit Iranian coastal radar positions in Goruk and on Qeshm Island, both along the Strait of Hormuz, early Saturday after downing drones launched by Iran that US Central Command said threatened maritime traffic. Later on Saturday, the US military said it had also shot down two more Iranian attack drones that were endangering shipping in the strait.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had retaliated against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, while Kuwait’s army said on Saturday it engaged seven ballistic missiles that passed over residential neighborhoods, causing material damage but no casualties.
In Bahrain, warning sirens sounded and authorities told residents to take shelter.
Pakistani minister arrives in Tehran
Iran later said it had struck US bases in both countries with ballistic missiles, but the US military said six of the missiles were intercepted and a seventh failed to reach its target.
The United States and Iran have been engaged mostly in indirect talks over an interim agreement to stop the three-month-old war, leaving issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme for later negotiations.
Yet an agreement has remained out of reach, with the two sides continuing to clash at intervals.
Tehran is seeking access to billions of dollars in oil revenue, waivers on sanctions targeting crude exports, an end to a US blockade on its ports and leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.
US Central Command releases footage it says shows strikes on Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites
Iran has in effect blocked the waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil traffic moved before the war.
Iranian state media said Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi arrived in Tehran on Saturday for meetings with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. ISNA reported that Naqvi said he was carrying a “special letter” from his country’s army chief and prime minister to Mr Khamenei.
Mr Trump is under growing political pressure at home, with rising gasoline prices adding urgency to efforts to end the unpopular war.
He told NBC that although most of Iran’s drone and missile production facilities had been destroyed, Iran still retained about a fifth of its missile arsenal.
“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,” Mr Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” program, according to excerpts released by the network.
The war has pushed oil prices higher and snarled supply chains for other goods, including humanitarian aid.
Conflict spreads across region despite ceasefires
In a separate conflict in Lebanon, two Lebanese army officers and one soldier were killed in an Israeli strike on a military vehicle in the country’s south, the Lebanese army said.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.
Iran has tied any peace deal with Washington to a ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Smoke rises from Israeli shelling near the village of Mayfadoun in southern Lebanon
Lebanon’s army said on Saturday that its commander, General Rudolf Haykal, had departed for Pakistan at the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart, offering no further details.
The unexpected trip stood out because Washington — along with Lebanese leaders, including the president — has insisted that Lebanon ceasefire talks remain separate from the US-Iran negotiations being mediated by Pakistan.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem this week rejected a US-brokered deal between Israel and the Lebanese government aimed at ending the fighting in Lebanon.
That agreement did not include an Israeli withdrawal, and Hezbollah was not a party to the negotiations.
Israel has said its forces will neither withdraw nor suspend operations in the country as friction with the United States intensifies.
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