US not to give Iran access to its financial system: State Department
Washington says it will not give Iran any access to the US financial system amid its other measures to constrain Tehran’s financial relations and transactions with other countries.
"The administration has not been and is not planning to grant Iran access to the US financial system," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Monday.
President Barack Obama said Friday that the United States has no plan to permit the use of its financial system for dollar-denominated transactions with the Islamic Republic.
Obama said, however, foreign companies could work with Tehran through European banks.
This comes at a time that Iran’s financial relations with other countries is improving due to the removal of sanctions after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached between Tehran and the world powers.
Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany - finalized the text of the JCPOA in Vienna on July 14, 2015.
On January 16, Obama signed an executive order lifting US economic sanctions on Iran after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has implemented its commitments made in JCPOA.
However, some Iranians are frustrated that economic recovery from years of sanctions is slow as banking transactions are still stricken with problems and the return of Iran’s capital from abroad is facing hurdles.
“Here, we are faced with two types of a new problem: one is returning to former conditions which will automatically take time; the other is that American obstructions have made it difficult,” Abbas Araqchi, A senior nuclear negotiator, said on April 2.
US and European businesses are reluctant to do business with Iran for fear of getting tangled in a thicket of US regulations months after sanctions were lifted on Iran.
The US has fined some of the largest international banks for trading for Iran. Araqchi said some of those banks had pledged not to deal with Iran, but Tehran was pressuring Washington to remove the restrictions.
The US was also going to try a Singaporean man for allegedly shipping electronic devices to Iran.
Lim Yong Nam, 42, was indicted by a US grand jury in 2010 along with four other people and some companies on charges they wanted to violate US sanctions against Iran.
JPMorgan boss warns US facing most severe risks since World War II
Americans skipping meals to afford housing: Poll
Biden claims Chinese smart cars spy on US citizens, infrastructure
Google fires more employees over anti-Israel protests
Iran set to build more nuclear power plants: AEOI chief
'Iran’s True Promise ushers in new era for region; strategic implications felt across globe'
VIDEO | Arrest and harassment: US intensifies crackdown on pro-Gaza protests in universities
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
France fails to ban anti-Islamophobia protests
In Numbers: 200 days of Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza
Death toll mounts in Gaza as Israeli genocidal war marks 200 days
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
