The Trump administration is working with Qatar on a mechanism that would let Iran tap roughly $6 billion in frozen oil revenue to buy food, medicine, and other humanitarian goods, an early financial sweetener under the 14-point memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday with Tehran, people familiar with the talks said.

The plan, which is still unfinished and requires Iranian sign-off, would route purchases through Iran's central bank and could serve as a template for unlocking a slice of the roughly $100 billion in Iranian assets around the world.

The arrangement, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would draw down a pool of money that Iran has long demanded be returned.

Tehran is seeking at least $24 billion in initial releases, and Iran's state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency has reported the regime expects $12 billion to flow during the 60-day interim window, with disbursements tied to progress in talks.

Under the MOU, the United States committed to making Iran's frozen assets "fully available for use" and to negotiating a process for doing so.

The Qatar channel has precedent.

In 2023, the Biden administration issued a sanctions waiver moving $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue from South Korea to Doha as part of a prisoner-swap deal, only to refreeze it after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Talks to unlock those funds restarted in late May, when Iranian parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf led a delegation to Doha, helping rebuild momentum toward this month's MOU.

The push to release funds to Tehran is colliding with a deal that is already fraying.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his assassinated father in March, posted in a thread on X Thursday that President Trump had pursued the agreement "out of desperation," saying he approved it only on assurances from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Trump fired back Friday on Truth Social: "We didn't meet out of desperation, Iran did. They are FINISHED! We'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not ten cents!"

The Strait of Hormuz, whose reopening anchored the deal, remains effectively closed.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said this week the waterway will stay shut so long as Israel continues operations in southern Lebanon, and the Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed next phase of U.S.-Iran talks slated for Burgenstock have been postponed.

Vice President JD Vance, who had been set to lead the U.S. delegation, did not travel; the White House cited logistical issues.

Critics in both parties argue the cash pipeline rewards Tehran before any verifiable nuclear concessions are made.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the United States "is worse off than before the war started," calling the agreement a capitulation.

Administration defenders counter that the Qatar mechanism restricts spending to non-sanctioned humanitarian goods, gives Washington visibility into Iranian purchases, and ties further releases to Iranian performance, including the dilution of enriched uranium required under the MOU.

As of Saturday, no Treasury waiver authorizing fresh disbursements from the Qatari account had been publicly issued.