Political analysts and observers were shocked on Thursday by new reporting on the draft peace plan that U.S. and Iranian negotiators are discussing.
The New York Times reported that part of the deal on the table includes a $300 billion investment fund to help rebuild Iran at the end of the war. The report was published at a time when the Trump administration and Iranian officials are in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global waterway for energy trade, which has prolonged the over three-month-old conflict.
"Iranian official described it as a 'reconstruction program' that would be promised to Iran in the event a final agreement was signed. Earlier in the negotiations, Tehran had demanded reparations for bombardment damage that some Iranian officials estimate at $300 billion to $1 trillion," according to the report.
Analysts and observers reacted to the report on social media.
"That’s 300 ballrooms!" Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, posted on X.
"Uh, what?" former Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger posted on X.
"A $300 Billion Dollar Investment fund? For Iran? By Trump? You have to be kidding me," Mally Smith, a former Biden and Harris campaign staffer, posted on X.
"Unlike Obama unfreezing $1.7 billion in Iranian funds held since the 1979 revolution, Trump is offering Iran a $300 billion outright bribe to let him get out of the mess of the war he started so he can claim a victory and move on," Damon Linker, a political science lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania, posted on X.