Azerbaijan, Baku / corr trend D.Khatinoglu / The US economic sanctions cannot be dangerous for Iran Bijan Bidabad, an Iranian economic expert.
"Real danger for Tehran from the US economic sanctions applied on Iran can be possible only through the agreement of the international community," Bidabad said in an interview for Trend.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, stated on 25 October on the application of sanctions with respect to the Iranian bank Saderat, the National Bank and Millet bank. Moreover, some representatives from the US Congress called on the International Bank not to allocate loans and invest capital in Iran.
The International Bank ceased assistance to Iran, Iranian agency Aftab reported on 7 November citing Herald Tribune news agency as reporting.
Bidabad said in a telephone talk with Trend from Tehran that the United States and Iran do not have economic relations. "The mediating companies do not carry out money transfer between the two countries through the Iranian banks. Moreover, the relations between the two countries are not of large scale. The application of US sanctions against the Iranian banks will not pose danger for the country. The mediating businessmen, who established economic bridge between the two countries, still continue working. However, Iran should not be happy with it. In case the world community recognizes these sanctions and the sanctions applied on Iran by the world, the country will face with a serious crisis," an Iranian economic expert said.
Bidabad said that Iran has not very tight relations with the International Bank. Tehran has been facing different sanctions for over 30 years and the United States is guilty in it. The United States possesses huge investments at the International Bank and is considered to be the biggest partner of the bank. Therefore, it has enough force to break economic relations between the international Bank and Iran. However, Iran has inconsiderable ties with the International Bank. For the time being, new sanctions applied by the USA against Iran are not considered dangerous for the country, though the European Union's support to these sanctions paralyzes Iran from the economic aspect,' Bidabad said.
The International Bank ceased a $5.4bln credit line for the health sector. This bank has 9 economic projects with Iran. With $3.4bln capital last year the bank participated in 48 projects. Money transfers between the International Bank and Iran was carried out through the National Bank of Iran. The United States put a ban on the bank's relations with Iran and relations between the two banks have deteriorated.