US Sanctions on Iran Ineffective

Source: Alalam.ir, 22-8-2008
LONDON--US sanctions on Iran's financial sector over Tehran's refusal to suspend its nuclear program have not hindered Bank Mellat, the managing director of the bank says.
In an interview with the Financial Times in Tehran published Friday, Ali Divandari said that while US sanctions "initially had a negative impact on the bank's reputation and created troubles ... in practice there was no halt to our operations."
He said that the bank is working with important international commercial and correspondent banks on a daily basis including European, Asian and African banks.
But Divandari refused to name any of the banks or their home countries.
The managing director of the major Iranian bank said that the number of banks doing business with Bank Mellat had increased since the US sanctions because major international financial institutions that were doing business with it were replaced by a larger number of smaller banks.
The US and its Western allies have sponsored three rafts of UN Security Council sanction on Iran as it has turned downed demands to put a halt to its uranium enrichment activities before any negotiation on the issue.
Iran refuses preconditions for talks and stresses its atomic work is solely for peaceful purposes.
The US in October imposed unilateral sanctions against three of Iran's largest banks -- including Bank Mellat -- accusing them of financing the nuclear activities.
The United States, Britain, France and Germany have proposed Iran freeze uranium enrichment process in return for a halt to further sanctions, the so-called freeze-for freeze deal.
But Iran, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says it has the right to develop nuclear technology aimed at generating electricity for its growing population.