US action to ease prohibited dollar transactions with Iran not new: CBI

EghtesadOnline: Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif has said that the decision made recently by US Treasury Department to further ease sanctions on Iran was not new.

News ID: ۷۳۷۵۹۷

19 October 2016

The decision was just to remove the past ambiguities, Seif told reporters on Monday evening.

The US Treasury Department in new guidance published on October 7, said that some previously prohibited dollar transactions with Iran by offshore banking institutions are allowed as long as they do not enter the US financial system, reports IRNA.

The clarifications also remove a blanket ban on foreign transactions with Iranian firms that may be controlled or minority owned by a person who remains subject to US sanctions, the Associated Press (AP) has reported.

The Department of Treasury said that such transactions are 'not necessarily sanctionable' under existing US regulations.

According to the July 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and world powers including the US, Tehran can have dollar account and do business with it, Seif said, adding that there were some ambiguities in ways of how the international banks can have relations with Iran.

The ambiguities came clear gradually during the talks with those banks, Seif stressed.

During talks between the officials at Iran's Foreign Ministry and those at the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury, the issues and ambiguities were discussed and new guideline were released after, Seif noted.