A woman holds a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a ceremony honoring the armed forces and those killed in the war with Israel and the US at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, on May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A US official and a Mideast diplomat told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that the US is readying to begin offering Iran sanctions relief in the form of a waiver allowing Tehran to export its oil.
The US has insisted that the MOU conditions any sanctions relief for Iran on Tehran’s willingness to make concessions in subsequent talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and its conduct in the region.
But the up-front US sanctions waiver on Iranian oil sales would indicate that Iran is not in fact required to make further concessions in order to have some of the economic restrictions against Tehran lifted.
A senior US official briefing reporters on Monday seemed to hint at the sanctions waiver, saying the US would make “some small gestures… in the beginning,” but said those would be conditioned on “small gestures… that show they’re willing to meet their commitments.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the sanctions waiver earlier Tuesday but was unclear as to whether it was already in effect.
The report noted that an Iranian oil tanker was allowed to cross the US blockade today, in an indication that the waiver is at least partially in place.
While lifting its curbs on oil exports offers some much-needed relief to Iran, it is seen as one of the more minor steps that the US can take in the realm of sanctions relief.
Washington even signed such a waiver during the recent Iran war, temporarily lifting sanctions on Iranian oil for 30 days, in order to ease pressure on global energy supplies and lower oil prices.
$300 billion reconstruction fund
Meanwhile, a source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters that the $300 billion private fund designed to trigger investment into Iran is indeed outlined in the US-Iran framework agreement, adding that more than half that sum has already been committed.
The fund is designed to give both sides an economic incentive to conclude a final deal, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced as Washington and Tehran prepare to formally sign it on Friday, having already digitally signed it on Sunday.
The new fund is a private investment vehicle, not a reconstruction or reparations program, and will not include any government money or grants, the source said, adding that companies based in the US, the Gulf Arab states, Asia, South America and Africa have agreed to commit financing.
Investments pledged span energy, logistics, manufacturing and transportation, the source said.
A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had originally sought $400 billion as compensation for war damages from the US, but Washington had said it would not provide it.
The idea for the fund, which is to be named the Reconstruction and Development Fund, had then emerged.
The mechanism envisages regional countries contributing in various ways, the Iranian source said. These include securing loans, establishing credit lines or directly financing the reconstruction of sites damaged in the war, including facilities such as the Mobarakeh Steel complex, refineries, airports and, more broadly, infrastructure affected by the conflict.
Backdropped by ships in the Strait of Hormuz, damage, which according to local witnesses caused by several recent airstrikes during the US-Israel military campaign, is seen on a fishing pier in the port of Qeshm Island, Iran, April 13, 2026. (Asghar Besharati/AP)
Iran, one of the Middle East’s largest economies, has attracted almost no significant foreign direct investment in the past four decades, frozen out of global capital markets by successive waves of US and international sanctions.
The country has the world’s second-largest proven natural gas reserves and the fourth-largest proven oil reserves.
It also has a young, educated population of more than 92 million people, a diversified industrial base and significant untapped potential in sectors ranging from petrochemicals and mining to tourism and agriculture.
The investment fund is entirely separate from a parallel negotiating track over the lifting of US sanctions and the release of Iranian sovereign assets frozen abroad, the source said, describing the two as distinct financial mechanisms with different purposes and timelines.
The fund will not be created or become operational until a final and satisfactory deal is concluded.
“It’ll only be created once the final deal is signed,” the source said. “During these 60 days, the fund administrators will work with Iranians and investors to plan and scope projects.”
The Iranian foreign ministry and Pakistan’s foreign ministry, which helped mediate the investment fund deal, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, though Iran’s top Joint Military Command warned Israel should expect a hard response from the Iranian armed forces if it did not stop striking Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
A White House spokeswoman pointed to a CBS interview with Vance on Monday in which he said that Iran could gain access to a $300 billion reconstruction fund backed by Gulf states if it complies with an agreement with Washington, including dismantling its nuclear program, eliminating its stockpile of enriched material, and accepting a stringent inspection and enforcement regime.
The source would not say how the fund will be administered or by whom, noting that key details were still to be worked out.
The source named companies from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and the United States among those that had made commitments, but declined to provide a comprehensive list.
The 60-day memorandum is a framework, not a final agreement, and US and Iranian negotiators are expected to work across multiple tracks during that period, covering nuclear, sanctions and regional security issues.
