President Donald Trump said Monday he could not guarantee that Iran would not use profits from oil sales to rebuild its military, telling CNBC's Eamon Javers at the White House, "Well, they're not supposed to be doing that, so we'll see."
Trump made the comments during an executive order signing event. He said Iran was expected to use unfrozen funds and oil revenues to purchase food from American farmers rather than to rebuild military capacity. "But they're supposed to use money to buy food for their people, because right now their people are very hungry, and they're buying it exclusively from us: corn, soybeans," Trump said.
He added that the funds being unfrozen as part of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries "is going to be used to buy food, and the food is going to be bought exclusively through the United States, from our farmers, and corn, soybeans, all of the things they need are going to be bought from our farmers." Trump said, "So our farmers are very happy."
On the size of potential purchases, Trump said: "Should be a lot of money. I hope it's a lot of money."
Trump's remarks came hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent authorized the import of Iranian oil and refined products into the United States through at least August. The decision followed what officials described as productive peace talks between Iran and the U.S. held in Switzerland. Last Thursday, the U.S. Navy lifted a blockade of Iran's ports and coastal areas that had been in place since April. The blockade had sharply reduced the amount of Iranian oil loaded for export.
Iran's central bank pushed back on Trump's characterization of the deal almost immediately. Abdolnaser Hemmati, the governor of Iran's central bank, told the Iranian news agency Tasnim on Monday: "There is no obligation to buy agricultural inputs from the U.S." He repeated the point: "Based on the signed notes, there is no obligation to purchase agricultural inputs from the U.S."
Hemmati said Iran would consider American products on their merits. "We need to buy billions of dollars worth of essential goods and medicine annually, and it does not matter to us from which source we pay for these essential goods," he said, according to Tasnim. He added that if the price and quality of U.S. products is better compared to those of other countries, there is no block on buying the American products.
The conflicting statements from Washington and Tehran leave open the question of how Iranian oil revenues will actually be directed and whether U.S. farmers will see the purchases Trump described.
