Macron offers Iran bailout to stick with nuclear accord


French President Emmanuel Macron is offering a $15 billion bailout to top Iranian negotiators who arrived in Paris on Monday in exchange for Tehran's commitment to returning to its landmark 2015 nuclear accord, The New York Times reported. The financial incentive is intended to compensate Iran for oil sales lost because of sanctions imposed by the U.S. since President Trump withdrew from the agreement last year.
The $15 billion letter of credit would give Iran the ability to receive hard currency while most of the income from its oil sales is frozen in banks. The money roughly equals half of the revenue Iran would get from oil sales in a year. Trump administration officials say the bailout would undermine Trump's effort to put "maximum pressure" on Iran, the Times said.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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