The U.S. Treasury Department is weighing whether to let Gulf allies tap into frozen Iranian assets to cover damage from the Iran war, a person familiar with Secretary Scott Bessent's thinking said Saturday, as American and Iranian forces traded a fresh round of strikes on the 100th day of a conflict that talks have so far failed to end.

The disclosure pulls a financial lever Tehran had been pressing the United States to release as part of a deal. Roughly $24 billion in Iranian assets sit frozen abroad, and an adviser to Iran's supreme leader said this week that any peace settlement hinges on their return. Diverting those funds to Bahrain, Kuwait and other partners hit by Iranian missiles and drones would foreclose that path and bind American war policy more tightly to the Gulf monarchies bearing the cost of the U.S. blockade.

Strikes and intercepts

Iran fired ballistic missiles and drones toward Bahrain and Kuwait that were intercepted early Saturday, Bahrain's government said. U.S. Central Command said American forces shot down two Iranian one-way attack drones over the Strait of Hormuz, on top of four downed Friday, and intercepted six of seven Iranian ballistic missiles fired at the two Gulf states. The seventh missed.

The U.S. military then struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites at Goruk and on Qeshm Island. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem air base in Kuwait and the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. CENTCOM said the drones "posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic." No American personnel were harmed.

Iran's Foreign Ministry called the American strikes a violation of the April 8 ceasefire and said the radar sites exist to "ensure the security of navigation in international waters." The Trump administration has used the same self-defense framing to justify its own strikes.

Treasury's leverage

The asset plan, described by a person familiar with Bessent's thinking, would direct the Treasury to use all available authorities to make frozen Iranian funds accessible for Gulf rebuilding. Bessent has asked Gulf governments for comprehensive damage estimates, the person said. Officials have not specified which assets — cash in blocked bank accounts or hard property such as oil tankers — would be tapped.

Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Iran sanctions official at Treasury, told PBS the move flips the script. "So the U.S. government is saying: 'Hey, not just that we're not going to give you these funds. As a matter of fact, we're going to take these funds from you, and we're going to help Gulf states to take it," Maleki said. He added that some Gulf governments may hesitate out of fear of Iranian retaliation.

Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned the missile salvo as "a dangerous and irresponsible escalation, a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and a direct threat to regional stability."

Talks at a deadlock

Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN that negotiations "are at a deadlock and Trump must break this deadlock." Rezaei said "the ball is in Trump's court" and called the release of the frozen assets "a sign of trust-building." He warned Iran could expand the war to the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and the Bab al-Mandab Strait if the U.S. blockade is not lifted.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative agreement a week ago to extend the ceasefire by 60 days and open talks on Iran's nuclear program, PBS reported. President Trump has called for unspecified changes, and Iranian officials have shown no public sign of agreeing. Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsen Naqvi, arrived in Tehran on Saturday carrying what he called a "special letter" from his country's army chief and prime minister to Khamenei, Iranian state media reported.

Oil and the home front

The blockade has redirected 129 commercial vessels and disabled six, CENTCOM said. Crude trades near $97 a barrel, and the national average for regular gasoline stands at $4.22, about $1.10 higher than a year ago, according to AAA. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told reporters Friday, "The gas price story is a serious one. We understand that people are hurting on that, and we've taken a number of measures to reduce the disruption, and we expect it to be temporary."

Counterpoint

The sources informing today's account lean center and left — the AP wire carried by PBS, CBS News and Al Jazeera. Republican-aligned outlets had not added direct factual reporting to the dossier by press time, leaving the administration's escalation steps largely uncontested from the right. Critics including Maleki note that pushing Gulf states to seize Iranian property invites retaliation against the very governments Washington is trying to defend, and Tehran has threatened to widen the war if its funds are not released.

What's next

The tentative 60-day ceasefire extension remains unsigned, and Naqvi's Tehran visit is the first concrete mediation step since the Pakistani channel reopened. Bessent's request for damage estimates sets up the next public marker: a dollar figure that will determine how much of Iran's frozen wealth Washington tries to move.