Iran Scrapping Cash Withdrawal From Germany
EghtesadOnline: Iran has informed German financial regulator BaFin that it would be dropping its earlier request to repatriate funds from the bank, German media outlets, including Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday.
If transferred, the funds would have been the largest amount of cash ever removed from German coffers in the country’s history, Sputnik reported. Washington, which started imposing incrementally harsh restrictions against Tehran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal in May, had pressured German authorities not to hand over the money. German government officials said in July that they had no indication to suggest that Iran had any plans to use the funds to fund militant groups as claimed by the US, Bild reported. US sanctions against the Iranian energy, ports and shipping sectors, as well as foreign financial institutions doing business with Iranian ones, are expected to go into effect on November 5. In the wake of Washington’s looming reimposition of sanctions, China, India, Russia and European countries have scrambled to find ways to sustain business ties with Iran, according to Financial Tribune.