Sanctions designed to target Iran’s financial market: FM

EghtesadOnline: During years of sanctions, Iran’s financial market, as one of the main infrastructures of the country, was under unfair attacks, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.

News ID: ۷۴۱۲۵۰

29 April 2017

According to IRNA, Zarif made the remarks on Saturday in the 4th Banking and Buisness Forum Iran Europe.

“The architects of sanctions began a special operation to paralyze Iran’s financial market,” Zarif said.

“They were after restricting and disabling inter-banking relations and create disruptions in transactions between Iranian and foreign banks as well as cutting the country’s financial resources both in short and long terms,” he said.

“And they rather succeeded to do so,” Iran’s top diplomat said.

The countries which put Iran under sanctions, among other things, made every effort to deny Iran access to financial resources and aids by international institutions as well as imposing massive cost of services provided by foreign financial entities to trigger internal financial imbalances, fuel inflation, increase the prices of foreign currencies and to curb production in the country, Zarif said.

The Foreign Minister then went on to refer to the confiscation of Iran’s assets by foreign countries during the years of sanctions.

“Around two billion dollars of the country’s assets and another 1.5 billion dollars of resources belonged to Iran’s Central Bank were plundered as a result of mismanagement by former governments,” he said.

The Foreign Minister also said that as a result of the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, known also as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), financial obstacles no longer exists.

Today, as a result of the JCPOA, we can rightly claim that the chains of sanctions on the country’s banking system have been broken and just 100 days after the agreement in Geneva the Islamic Republic of Iran is recovering 700 million dollars of its already frozen highly-needed assets per month.

Zarif then criticized Washington for defaulting on its JCPOA commitments, and he expressed hope that the European countries do not follow suit to guarantee the mutual interests they have with the Islamic Republic.

“In recent years, the United States has imposed severe penalties on international banks on the pretext that they have engaged with their Iranian peers,” he said.

“Unfortunately, measures taken by the new US Administration and especially comments by the American officials warning global banks against reestablishing ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, have tarnished very much the atmosphere of cooperation between Iranian and international banks,” Zarif added.

Iran’s top diplomat said that Teheran during talks and meetings with P5+1 group of countries, including the United States has conveyed its concerns over the issue.