The $24bn cost of Trump’s capitulation on Iran
The optics for a president could not be worse: handing over billions of dollars to the very regime America has been at war against.
Yet, that is the reality facing Donald Trump, who spent years criticising Barack Obama for sending “pallets of cash” to Iran under a 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany.
The sum Mr Trump has to contemplate – $24bn (£19bn), half of it to be paid upfront – would be released in exchange for a memorandum of understanding to end two similarly costly and politically painful months of fighting in the Middle East.
Talks are, of course, still ongoing and everything is still under consideration.
