A draft U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding to end the 2026 war, first reported by the New York Times on May 28, 2026, includes a roughly $300 billion postwar reconstruction mechanism for Iran. Tehran had demanded reparations for the damage from U.S. and Israeli bombardment. The American side deliberately avoided the words “reparations” or “compensation,” relabeling the money an “international investment fund” to avoid a political backlash at home, a rebranding confirmed by officials across the New York Times, Axios, CNN, CBS, and Israeli outlets.
The reason for the careful wording is Trump's own record: he spent years attacking the Obama administration's $400 million Iran settlement. Trump told aides he would not sign any deal that could be seen as the United States directly handing money to Iran, and he posted on Truth Social on May 29, “No money will be exchanged, until further notice.”
The investment-fund concept originated with Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, both real-estate investors, who floated real-estate projects in Tehran and a broader investment mechanism as incentives for a deal. The draft MOU would reopen the Strait of Hormuz with no tolls, require Iran to clear all mines within 30 days, lift the U.S. naval blockade proportionally as shipping resumes, and issue sanctions waivers; about $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets was discussed separately. The structure places two of Trump's real-estate-investor advisers at the center of shaping how hundreds of billions would flow into postwar Iran (see Raskin Launches an Investigation Into Kushner for Negotiating the Iran War While Running a $6.2B Fund Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia).