Inside the 37-Year Standoff Over Iran’s Frozen U.S. Dollars

Iran sought the money from every administration since Carter’s; will Obama’s deal encourage more claims?

When the shah of Iran fell in 1979, the U.S. froze at least $400 million of Iranian money sitting in a Pentagon trust fund. The Islamic Republic of Iran never stopped trying to get it back.

Tehran unsuccessfully sought the money from Jimmy Carter in return for 52 American diplomats held hostage for 444 days. It asked the Reagan administration for the same money during dealings that led to the Iran-Contra scandal. The issue came up yet again during negotiations with George H.W. Bush’s White House.

No administration agreed to surrender all the money, until Jan. 17, shortly after four American citizens were released from Iranian jails in a prisoner exchange. That is when an Iranian government Boeing 737 lifted off from Geneva’s Cointrin airport carrying $400 million—stacks of Swiss francs delivered on wooden pallets earlier that day by the U.S. government.

The history of the frozen money, based on interviews with U.S., Iranian and European officials involved in the negotiations over the decades, shows how it has been a constant sore point between the two countries since the 1979 Iranian revolution. That sore spot finally has been removed, although in keeping with the four-decade pattern, it has been replaced by other financial grievances and more American detainees, suggesting similar dramas may lie ahead.

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