US official denies report Washington agreed to unfreeze Iran assets

WASHINGTON: A senior US official denied on Saturday a report saying Washington had agreed to release Iran’s frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks.

Iranian and US delegations have arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan for talks aimed at ending the war in the Middle East.

Tehran earlier said any agreement on a permanent end to fighting must include the unfreezing of sanctioned Iranian assets and an end to Israel’s war on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

READ MORE: Iranian source says US has agreed to unfreeze Iranian funds, Washington denies it

An unnamed “senior Iranian source” told news outlet Reuters that the United States had agreed to unfreeze the assets and that the move was directly linked to ensuring safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz.

In a message from the White House, a senior US official responded to the report saying, “False. The meetings have not even started yet.”

On Saturday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met US Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad, the former’s office said, adding that peace talks to end the Middle East war had “commenced.”