Tehran disputes Trump’s description of deal over unfrozen Iranian funds as U.S. Senate votes to end war

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a visit to the Mack Trucks manufacturing facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 2026. Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

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President Donald Trump said Iran will be able to use funds released from frozen accounts only to purchase food and medical supplies from the U.S., seeking to ease concerns about peace negotiations that both sides say are making progress.

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Yet Trump’s comments were quickly disputed by Iran, the latest instance where both sides are making conflicting claims over key issues in their discussions, with the status of inspections now a case of he said-he said.

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The back and forth on what was actually agreed to last week runs alongside growing domestic criticism of U.S. conduct in the war.

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The Republican-led Senate voted Tuesday to end the U.S. war with Iran, in a rare symbolic rebuke of Trump. While the resolution is unlikely to force any changes in the administration’s strategy, it represents the latest sign that the president lacks domestic support for the effort.

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Meanwhile, Iran and Oman said they’ll begin work on finding an agreement over the future administration of the Strait of Hormuz, including the cost of managing transit in the key shipping lane.

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Oil prices fell lower on Tuesday, with Brent declining to US$76.88 a barrel. It’s down from a high of around US$125 in late April and now approaching pre-war levels.

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Trump said the billions of dollars of unlocked financing will go “into escrow, controlled by the U.S.A.” and will be used for the purchase of American-grown products such as corn, wheat and soybeans, Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday.

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He added that Iran had agreed to “highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future” in the parallel negotiation over Tehran’s atomic activities, a central part of the discussions to end the near four-month war and keep the critical Strait of Hormuz open.

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After Trump’s post, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei disputed both notions, saying the funds would be used by his country “freely, in whatever manner it deems appropriate,” rather than being restricted to purchases from the U.S.

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Baghaei also rejected Trump’s claims about nuclear inspections, saying “we have neither met with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

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Trump repeated his insistence that Iran had agreed — as both sides continue to frame the negotiations in ways aimed at their domestic audiences.

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“They’re wrong,” Trump told reporters when asked about Baghaei’s comments. “They know they’re wrong. They told us inside and we have it down, 100% inspections — and if they were right, I’d cancel the meetings right now.”

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Trump’s comments underscore the U.S. president’s defensiveness over the deal as it draws criticism, including from defense hawks in his own party.

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His insistence that released funds would go to U.S. agricultural products could appeal to US farmers — a key political constituency for Trump and Republicans — who they will need to energize ahead of the November midterm elections, particularly in large swaths of the Midwest and South.