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Adam Zivo: $300B investment fund will enrich Iran and constrain America

It is based on the disproven theory that trade leads to peace

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When Washington published its memorandum of understanding with Tehran last week, many were appalled by the inclusion of a $300-billion “reconstruction” fund. The clause was widely misunderstood as free cash for the Islamic Republic — reparations, essentially — but the truth is more complicated, albeit still disastrous.

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Details about the fund are still murky, but it appears that it will primarily consist of private investment in the Iranian market. This means that American financiers, and likely their counterparts in the Persian Gulf, will deploy their capital into the country in exchange for ownership stakes in recipient projects — a relationship that is fundamentally transactional, not charitable.

Adam Zivo: $300B investment fund will enrich Iran and constrain America Back to video

To be clear: this is not some modern-day equivalent of the Marshall Plan, where the United States rebuilt postwar Europe largely through non-repayable grants. Rather, it resembles U.S. President Donald Trump’s earlier plans to pacify eastern Europe by launching joint investment funds with both Ukraine and Russia (these initiatives, being half-baked, never gained traction).

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