In mid-June 2025, during a military conflict (archived) between Israel and Iran that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to authorize airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, claims that the administration of former President Joe Biden had unfrozen $16 billion for Iran resurfaced and circulated widely on social media, with some posts suggesting this funding enabled Iran's current military capabilities.
For example, one X user posted (archived): "Hillary Clinton gave Iran uranium. Barack Obama handed them $1.7 BILLION. Joe Biden unfroze over $16 BILLION for the regime. Don't you DARE blame this on President Trump." The post had nearly 10,000 likes as of this writing.
(BrilynHollyhand/X)
Similar claims spread elsewhere on X (archived) as well as on Facebook, where one post (archived) claimed Biden's White House unfroze $6 billion of Iranian funds and renewed a sanctions waiver giving Iran access to roughly $10 billion of Iraqi funds:
Biden's Policies allowed Iran to access $16 Billion in frozen assets & rake in $50 billion in oil from 'relaxed sanctions'. In August 2023, the Biden administration facilitated the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in South Korea. In March 2024, the administration reissued a sanctions waiver allowing Iran access to about $10 billion in frozen funds from Iraq.
However, while it is true that the Biden administration's actions enabled Iran to access approximately $16 billion through two separate mechanisms, the characterization oversimplifies these complex sanctions arrangements and lacks context about restrictions, oversight and the blocking of portions of these funds. Therefore, we have rated this claim as a mixture of truth and falsehood.
The $6 billion prisoner exchange
In September 2023, the Biden administration reached an agreement with Iran that led to the release (archived) of five American citizens detained in Iranian prisons. As a condition of the deal, the U.S. issued waivers allowing international banks to transfer $6 billion (archived) in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to a restricted account in Qatar.
According to a background call (archived) with members of the news media by the Biden administration on Sept. 17, 2023, the money consisted of:
Iranian funds — payments made by South Korea to Iran for purchases of oil years ago, including during the last administration — moving from one restricted account in Korea to another restricted account in Qatar. These funds will be available only for transactions for humanitarian goods with vetted third-party, non-Iranian vendors.
Officials also said "these are not taxpayer dollars. This is not a payment of any kind. No funds enter Iran ever, nor do any funds get paid to Iranian companies or entities."
Following Hamas' attack on Israel (archived) on Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S. and Qatar agreed to restrict Iran's access to the $6 billion. During a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Oct. 26, 2023, Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, confirmed that none of the funds had been released to Iran and that the decision to restrict access was made jointly by the U.S. and Qatar on Oct. 12, in direct response to the Hamas attack.
On Oct. 12, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also confirmed (archived):
None of the funds that have now gone to Qatar have actually been spent or accessed in any way by Iran. Indeed, funds from that account are overseen by the Treasury Department, can only be dispensed for humanitarian goods — food, medicine, medical equipment — and never touch Iranian hands. We have strict oversight of the funds, and we retain the right to freeze them.
The $10 billion Iraq energy payments
The second component of the claim involved Iraqi payments to Iran for electricity purchases. Snopes previously investigated the origins of the $10 billion figure, which some media outlets claimed was "granted" to Iran following a November 2024 waiver renewal. We found that while the Biden administration did renew the sanctions waiver, claims that it "granted" Iran $10 billion were misleading because the administration didn't pay the Iranian government any money.
This waiver system, which predated the Biden administration, originated (archived) in 2018 after Trump — then in his first term — withdrew (archived) from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions.
The waiver allowed Iraq to continue purchasing electricity and natural gas from Iran, with payments held in restricted escrow accounts rather than transferred directly to Iran. The Nov. 7, 2024, renewal extended this arrangement through March 2025, maintaining the same restrictions that limited Iran's access to the funds for humanitarian purchases only.
A State Department spokesperson said in a media briefing (archived) on Dec. 3, 2024, that the waiver renewal was a routine administrative action that had occurred 23 times since 2018, spanning the first Trump administration and the Biden administration.
In sum …
The social media posts accurately cited the $16 billion figure but omitted context about the restrictions governing these funds.
The Biden administration enabled Iran's potential access to this amount through two mechanisms: $6 billion in assets moved to Qatar for a prisoner exchange and roughly $10 billion in Iraqi energy payments. Both amounts remained in restricted accounts with humanitarian-use limitations and third-party oversight. The $6 billion was frozen again in October 2023 and never accessed by Iran, while the Iraqi payment system continued a waiver arrangement established in 2018 under the first Trump administration.
The posts described these actions as "unfreezing" funds for Iran, though the funds remained subject to restrictions and oversight mechanisms that limited their use to humanitarian purposes through vetted vendors. Because of this, the claim is a mixture of truth and falsehood.