Iran Nuclear Watch:United States Treasury Department Targets Hezbollah’s and Iran’s Financial Institutions
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (L) gives a press conference next to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Marienborg, Denmark. Solana has said that no UN sanctions would be imposed on Iran as long as talks continued on Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.
Treasury Department Targets Hezbollah’s and Iran’s Financial Institutions
In actions announced yesterday and today, the Treasury Department makes it clear that the U.S. will pursue the financial institutions which assist Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. Today, Treasury cut off access to the U.S. financial system by Iran’s Bank Saderat, one of Iranian-owned banks, by making it impossible to conduct “U-turn transactions,” which allow U.S. banks to process payments involving Iran that begin and end with a non-Iranian foreign bank. The Treasury statement asserts, “The bank is used by the Government of Iran to transfer money to terrorist organizations, including Hizballah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A notable example of this is a Hizballah-controlled organization that has received $50 million directly from Iran through Bank Saderat since 2001.” Stuart Levey, the senior Treasury anti-terrorist financing official, said, “Bank Saderat facilitates Iran’s transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizballah and other terrorist organizations each year.”
The United States is not going to wait for the United Nations to MEANINGLESSLY SANCTION Iran.
In other feckless action: Talks on Iran nuclear crisis to resume Monday by phone: US
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The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
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