Given that Treasury’s guidance about sanctions relief under the JCPOA specifically says that U-turn transactions remain prohibited – and administration officials testified before Congress that Iran would not have direct access to the USA financial system – the administration is looking offshore.
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Putin lifted the suspension in 2015 following Iran’s deal with six world powers that curbed its nuclear program in exchange for relief from worldwide sanctions. These complaints have reportedly pushed the Obama administration to consider offering Iran greater concessions, including access to the US dollar and American financial markets.
However, the administration would not comment when pressed by reporters on whether foreign banks would be permitted to conduct monetary transactions with Iran using American dollars. Some financial institutions have been hesitant to deal with Iran following the comprehensive nuclear agreement out of fear that such transactions might violate US sanctions barring transaction with the Islamic Republic.
On Tuesday, RT ran a brief interview with University of Tehran Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi in which he said that “the U.S. is trying to limit any potential benefit that Iran gets from the agreement as much as possible” and that “senior officials are traveling across the globe, speaking to banks and putting pressure on them not to do business with Iran”.
Republicans running for president have pledged to rip up the Iran deal or back away from it. Shannon said doing so could be calamitous.
“Our view is that we should not be in a rush” to pass new punitive measures, Shannon said.
Shannon said the administration will use all available multilateral and unilateral tools, including sanctions, to impede Iran’s ballistic missile program.
“I don’t think the administration is on the same page”, Corker told Shannon during Tuesday’s hearing. The legislation, according to the Washington Post, would increase penalties for ballistic missiles and conventional weapons, and renew the Iran Sanctions Act. One is tempted to agree that the Gulf states that have lined up with the US against Iran may have miscalculated.
U.S. Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Peter Roskam (R-IL) recently sought answers about the Obama administration’s response to ballistic missile tests carried out by Iran.
Shannon also told the committee the administration would use its veto power in the Security Council to block any sale of Russian Su-30 fighter aircraft to Iran.
As the nuclear deal was being negotiated, Kerry informed Congress that, under the deal, Iran would be “restrained from any … work on missiles”. Critics also point out that the agreement’s enforcement mechanisms haven’t prevented Iran from pernicious activity and that the deal has sparked public resistance in Israel, one of several skittish regional allies.
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Iran’s test firing of ballistic missiles in October challenged a United Nations resolution and prompted sanctions against businesses and individuals linked to the missile program.
