Trump, Ahead of the Election, Says Iran Will Buy a Lot of U.S. Wheat, Soybeans and Corn With Its Money

[Financial News] With the November midterm election approaching, U.S. President Donald Trump invited agricultural figures, a core base of support for the ruling party, to The White House and claimed that Iran would buy large amounts of U.S. farm products. Iran had previously stressed that there is no obligation to purchase agricultural goods under the previous memorandum of understanding with the United States.
According to foreign media outlets including The Times of Israel (ToI), Trump hosted a dinner for U.S. agricultural officials at the Rose Garden of The White House on the 25th (local time). In his remarks that day, he said, "Iran is struggling with food issues, and we will take some of their money and use it." He added, "We will buy a lot of wheat, soybeans and corn, and the process will start fairly quickly," stressing that "the purchase volume will be quite large." Trump also claimed, "We are negotiating with [Iran] from a position of pure strength."
Trump's remarks are believed to have been aimed at Iran's frozen assets held overseas. In an April report, Al Jazeera estimated that Iranian assets blocked abroad by various U.S. sanctions could be worth as much as $100 billion. Under the previous memorandum of understanding signed on the 17th, the United States agreed to gradually unfreeze Iranian overseas assets in line with ceasefire and denuclearization talks. The United States also agreed to temporarily ease sanctions that had blocked Iran's oil exports.
On the 22nd, Trump said of the resumption of Iran's oil exports, "They should be spending that money on buying food for their people," adding, "Right now, their people are very hungry, and they are buying corn and soybeans entirely from us."
He then said the frozen Iranian assets specified in the memorandum of understanding "will be used to buy food," adding, "That food will be purchased entirely from our farmers, and everything they need, including corn and soybeans, will be bought from our farmers." Trump added, "Our farmers are very happy," and said, "I hope it becomes a lot of money."
On the same day, Abdol Nasser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, pushed back through local media, saying Iran "has no obligation to purchase agricultural materials from the United States." Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran and the country's chief negotiator in the ceasefire talks, also wrote on X on the 25th to dismiss Trump's claim as false. He emphasized, "The United States only exports genetically modified soybeans, broken promises and nonsense."

Foreign media outlets analyzed Trump's remarks as a move to win over farmers' votes ahead of the midterm election. On the 25th, Trump signed an executive order on agricultural innovation and promised federal efforts to expand U.S. farmers' access to new technologies, improve agricultural productivity and create farm income opportunities related to biofuels. He told agricultural officials that day, "I have tremendous respect for you. You built America."

pjw@fnnews.com Park Jong-won Reporter