The week before Washington and Tehran reached an agreement to extend their ceasefire in mid-June, the U.S. government began to explore the possibility of seizing frozen Iranian assets. As part of this exploration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent instructed his staff to search for legal ways to seize Iranian assets and use them to compensate Gulf countries for the damage they suffered during the regional war. The announcement was likely meant to increase pressure on Iran to come to the negotiating table. Such action is rare in the United States, where legal restrictions have historically limited the use of foreign asset seizure as a diplomatic instrument. Instead, the U.S. government has tended to freeze foreign assets, including those held by foreign governments, and has even frozen foreign government assets held in countries other than the United States, most notably those belonging to Iran.