An Iranian media outlet has portrayed recent debate in Washington as evidence that information tied to Iran-related diplomacy is being turned into a tool for financial gain inside the United States. In a report published by Iran’s Nour News, the outlet argues that news about negotiations involving Iran has become part of a broader pattern in which political power, privileged information and private profit increasingly overlap in U.S. politics.
According to Nour News, the issue was sharpened by recent remarks from former U.S. President Barack Obama, who the Iranian outlet said warned against the use of presidential authority for personal financial benefit. The report says Obama stressed that a president should not be able to direct the attorney general for private purposes or simultaneously pursue business dealings involving foreign governments. Nour News presented those remarks as part of a broader warning about what it described as the dangerous intersection of political power and financial interest in the United States.
The Iranian outlet also pointed to a separate development involving the U.S. State Department. Citing a report it said appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Nour News wrote that American diplomats were warned not to use confidential government information, especially material related to Iran negotiations, for betting on online prediction markets such as Polymarket or Kalshi. In the Iranian report’s framing, that warning suggests that developments linked to Iran are no longer only matters of diplomacy and security, but have also become tradable assets in informal financial arenas.
Nour News described the trend as “dollar diplomacy,” arguing that politically sensitive information is being converted into monetary opportunity. It said prediction markets, where users wager on the likelihood of future events, risk turning confidential geopolitical information into cash value. The report argued that such a process could distort decision-making by creating incentives to shape news flows or political outcomes for financial gain.
The article further said this dynamic could weaken public trust if citizens come to believe that private interests are overriding the public good. It also argued that the commercialization of sensitive information could create national security risks by feeding financial instability or exposing strategic developments to speculative behavior.
For the Nour News the combination of political influence, market speculation and access to sensitive information paints a troubling picture of contemporary American politics. The Iranian outlet argued that power in the United States is increasingly seen not only as a means of governance, but also as a platform for wealth accumulation