( Reuter )- Targeted financial sanctions have been effective in isolating Iran, causing a "painful" situation for Tehran's leaders and raising questions about the Iranian administration, a U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday.
"Iran has found itself increasingly isolated from the international financial system as banks around the world decide that maintaining their Iranian clientele is not worth the risk of unwittingly facilitating (weapons) proliferation or terrorism," Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey said in remarks prepared for delivery to an American Bar Association conference in Miami.
"That self-imposed isolation combined with the Iranian regime's mismanagement of their country's economy is beginning to generate a debate about the wisdom of the current regime's policies," he added.