Iran is apparently seeking to access billions of U.S. dollars. The money is currently deposited with a subsidiary of the Deutsche Börse, Germany’s stock exchange, and has been frozen there for years due to U.S. sanctions. DER SPIEGEL has learned that Tehran has apparently made initial attempts to secure at least a share of those assets, originally valued at just under $4.9 billion.

The securities of the Iranian central bank, Bank Markasi, are held by Clearstream in Luxembourg. Some of those securities are held through an Italian bank. Clearstream has frozen all accounts attributable to Bank Markasi.

International security experts say that Tehran is in urgent need of hard currency for its military. The country’s armed forces need the money to restock its own arsenal as well as that of the Lebanese terrorist militia Hezbollah. Obligations stemming from arms deals with Russia must also be met.

The Iranian military, say experts, is not completely funded by the national budget and is expected to meet some of its financing needs itself. It is, for example, allocated a share of the country’s oil production, the proceeds from which it is allowed to keep. International sanctions, however, have made the sale of that oil increasingly difficult. Recently, the U.S. slapped sanctions on a network of shell companies that Iran is thought to have been using to evade sanctions on crude oil sales.

The army was able to land a spectacular coup as 2024 changed to 2025. Security experts say that Iranian negotiators managed to secure the release of almost $2 billion in crude oil that was being held in China. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the deal.

The Battle for Tehran's Billions

That success is likely attributable to an executive from the Iranian group Sepehr Energy, who has been under U.S. sanctions since November 2023. Sepehr Energy itself is also under U.S. sanctions. U.S. authorities believe the company was instrumental in financing both the Iranian armed forces and the Revolutionary Guards.

Security officials are now saying that the same Sepehr Energy executive who was responsible for the China triumph, Majid A., has now been given the task of prying free the billions of dollars that remain frozen at Clearstream. A. and other emissaries, they say, had planned to take a trip to Europe and filed applications for the necessary visas.

The battle for the Iranian central bank money – involving Tehran, Clearstream and victims and family members of the 1983 attack on a U.S. military base in Beirut – has been ongoing for years. Clearstream froze Iranian accounts worth roughly $4.9 billion in 2008 after Washington threatened to sanction Clearstream if it failed to do so.