A $300 billion private fund designed to spur investment in Iran is set out in the US-Iran framework agreement and more than half of that amount has already been committed, a source told Reuters.
The fund is designed to give both sides an economic boost, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced as Washington and Tehran prepare to sign on Friday. The promised investments include energy, logistics, manufacturing and transport.
The existence of the fund has been previously reported, but Reuters reveals that more than half of the amount has already been pledged and that it will consist entirely of private sector funds. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had initially demanded $400 billion in war damage compensation from the US, but Washington had said it would not provide it.
Then the idea for the fund was born, which will be called the Reconstruction and Development Fund. The mechanism envisages regional countries contributing in different ways, the Iranian source said. These include securing loans, establishing lines of credit or directly financing the reconstruction of war-damaged countries, including facilities such as the Mobarakeh steel complex, refineries, airports and, more broadly, conflict-affected infrastructure.
Iran, one of the Middle East’s largest economies, has attracted almost no significant foreign direct investment in the past four decades, blocked from global capital markets by successive waves of US and international sanctions.
