Iran’s Bank Mellat says it is skirting US bank sanctions
Published: Friday, August 22, 2008
11:00GMT—7:00AM/EST
IRAN – BANKS – SANCTIONS
Washington, 22 August (IranVNC)—Iran’s third-largest state-owned bank, Bank Mellat, is working more closely with small- and medium-size banks that have less exposure in order to get around US economic sanctions, the bank’s managing director told the Financial Times in a report published today.
Speaking to the London-based paper in Tehran, Ali Divandari said: “The US sanctions initially had a negative impact on the bank’s reputation and created troubles, but in practice there was no halt in our operations.”
He added: “We are now working with important international commercial and correspondent banks on a daily basis … including European, Asian and African ones.”
Bank Mellat – along with Bank Melli and Bank Saderat – were placed under US sanctions last October because of their alleged ties in financing Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
In July, the US Senate Banking Committee approved a bill that would impose further trade and economic sanctions against Iran. The bill awaits Senate approval.
The United Nations has also imposed three rounds of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its uranium enrichment work, which Western powers suspect is being used to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists their nuclear program is peaceful.
But Divandari said the US sanctions have failed to prevent the bank’s “links with the international brokerage network.”
He added: “We managed to quickly replace other banks.”
Although he did not name the nationalities of the foreign banks involved, Divandari said the number of banks working with Mellat had increased under the sanctions. The large, international banks that had withdrawn or scaled down ties have been replaced by small- and medium-size banks, he explained.
The European Union froze the assets of Iran’s largest bank, Bank Melli, in June and announced on 8 August that it will implement new sanctions against Iran that would go beyond current UN resolutions. It also called on member states to exercise “vigilance” over the activities of Iranian banks in their jurisdiction, in particular with Bank Saderat.
From 2001 to 2006, Bank Saderat’s London subsidiary transferred 50 million dollars from the Central Bank of Iran via a Bank Saderat branch in Beirut to front groups for Hezbollah, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The bank also has branches in France, Germany and Greece.
“It will be troublesome if Europe imposes unilateral sanctions on Iran’s banks,” Divandari told the Financial Times, adding: “but we will be able to again replace the outgoing banks.”
Senior Iranian officials say that the threat of new sanctions will not change the country’s stance on its uranium enrichment work. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier this month that sanctions have ended up “benefitting” the country. The head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said today that Iran has managed to reach its current success despite the sanctions.
Sources: Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, ISNA in Persian
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