The Trump administration is calling it an “international investment fund.” Iran originally demanded reparations. The difference in language is deliberate, and it’s at the center of a draft agreement that could commit the United States to facilitating a $300 billion reconstruction mechanism for Tehran — four hundred times the cash payment Trump spent a decade attacking.
A $300 billion fund by another name
A draft memorandum of understanding circulated among negotiators includes a proposed reconstruction mechanism for Iran valued at roughly $300 billion. The figure matches the low end of what Iranian officials have estimated as the cost of bombardment damage from the 2026 US-Iran war, according to the report. Tehran had explicitly demanded reparations for that damage. The word doesn’t appear in the draft.
Diplomats familiar with the text told reporters that the American side intentionally avoided “compensation” or “reparations.” They instead chose “international investment fund.” Multiple officials across outlets confirmed the rebranding. As of 30 May 2026, President Trump has not signed the agreement.
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An Iranian official described the proposed mechanism as a “reconstruction programme” that would be promised upon signing a final deal. Two other diplomats used different language, calling it an international investment fund that the United States would facilitate. The divergence in terminology isn’t accidental — it’s the entire point.
Trump’s own political record is the obstacle
Trump himself told aides he would not sign any deal that could be seen as the United States directly giving money to Iran. That position is rooted in his own two-decade political record. As a candidate in 2016 and repeatedly afterward, Trump attacked the Obama administration’s settlement of a decades-old arbitration case with Iran, which involved a cash payment of $400 million as part of a total $1.7 billion transfer.
Republicans called it ransom. Trump called Obama a liar. He repeated variations of the claim in almost every major foreign policy speech since. A fund labelled “reparations” at $300 billion would hand his critics — and his own base — the exact cudgel he spent a decade swinging. On 29 May 2026, Trump posted to Truth Social: “No money will be exchanged, until further notice.” He laid out his terms: no nuclear weapon, the Strait of Hormuz open with no tolls, and removal of all sea mines. He did not address the investment fund by name.
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Real estate developers shaped the deal
The investment fund concept didn’t come from the Iranian side. According to the filing, the proposal is an iteration of an idea first raised by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. Both are real estate investors. Witkoff, a New York property developer, founded the Witkoff Group and was appointed Special Envoy to the Middle East in November 2024, expanding his role to Special Envoy for Peace Missions in July 2025. Kushner began assisting him in late 2025.
Some mediators told reporters that Witkoff and Kushner had suggested promoting real estate projects in Tehran and establishing a broader investment mechanism as an incentive for a deal. That framing has since been folded into the formal draft text. Iranian negotiators took the idea and built on it, suggesting that large American oil and energy companies could enter Iran’s market through joint ventures after sanctions are lifted, according to the filing and corroborated by journalists on the scene. The prospect of US energy corporations gaining access to Iran’s reserves — the fourth-largest in the world — gives the fund a commercial logic that reparations never could.
What the draft memorandum actually says
Beyond the fund, the 60-day memorandum of understanding covers a sequence of immediate commitments. According to primary reporting, the MOU would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to unrestricted commercial shipping with no tolls, require Iran to remove all mines from the strait within 30 days, lift the American naval blockade proportionally as commercial shipping resumes, and issue sanctions waivers allowing Iran to sell oil freely. The deal also includes an Iranian commitment not to pursue a nuclear weapon, with negotiations on enrichment and disposal of Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile deferred to the 60-day talks that follow.
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Iran’s access to approximately $24 billion in frozen foreign bank assets is a parallel negotiating thread. Iranian officials have insisted on receiving at least $20 billion of that amount during the negotiation stage itself, before a final deal is signed, in order to stabilise the economy. The US has committed only to discuss sanctions relief and frozen funds as part of the 60-day window, not before it.
Iran’s Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that the Strait of Hormuz would remain under Iran’s management under the latest exchanged text, directly contradicting Trump’s public characterisation of the deal. Military vessels, Iranian officials said, are explicitly excluded from any commitment to reopen passage. Despite two skirmishes between US and Iranian forces in the strait in the 48 hours before the MOU was confirmed, US officials told reporters they believed Iran’s economic pressure was pushing its system toward settlement.
A president who built his brand on never giving Iran a cent is now the architect of the largest financial commitment to Tehran in American history, provided nobody calls it what Iran originally asked for.
