Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 24
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Majority of Iranian banks is in the US Treasury Department sanctions list, and this shows that the sanctions’ coverage is much broader than was expected, expert Mehrdad Emadi said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He said that SWIFT has recently stopped rendering services to major Iranian banks. This, in turn, reflects the US Treasury Department’s aim to paralyze Iran’s banking and financial system, which seeks to secure its economy in foreign markets, he noted.
“In my view, this process will have more consequences than the US Treasury Department expected,” he said. “There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that SWIFT has agreed to stop rendering services to Iranian banks faster than expected as a result of pressure by the US. Naturally, suspension of these services will create many problems for the Iranian economy in terms of trade with other countries. Besides, the number of Iranian banks included in the second package of sanctions shows that the US Treasury Department obtains more information than was known. That’s because the second sanctions package includes a concrete list of individuals and banks evading the sanctions.”
He added that the new staff of the US Treasury Department has increased the level of attention to sanctions. According to new information, US National Security Advisor John Bolton is preparing a new package of sanctions, he said.