NCRI – An Iranian economist regarding the U.S. Congressional resolution to strengthen the sanctions against the Iranian regime, said: “One of the largest banking systems is in the United States, which is capable of sanctioning even the Iranian domestic banks under the new agreements such as the FATF.”
According to the state-run Basij Rouz news agency on 18 August 2017, Ibrahim Razzaghi, an Iranian economist, recalling the FATF contract and its consequences, referred to the regime’s parliamentary bill as insignificant reaction in response to the recent U.S. sanctions and said: “American banks can exert pressure on Iran and impose sanctions on military institutions, including the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) through banks inside the country, as we saw a while ago, one of the banks created some problems for a military establishment in the country.”
Emphasizing on America’s financial, banking and currency strength, he said: “At the moment, we see that although bank sanctions have been lifted, but in practice, due to the pressure exerted by the American banking system on the world’s banks, most large banks have been able to exchange currency with Iran. Even in cases where contracts have been closed, there is no possibility of currency exchange for the the contract to become operational.”
Regarding lack of operational power of the parliament’s legislation, he said: “The parliament has knowingly or unknowingly passed a bill only to take a reciprocal action against the U.S., but in practice it has little operational capability, and even if it is operational, it will have very little effect in relation to U.S. sanctions.”
European banks implement the US directives, not the JCPOA!
Bijan Abdi, another economist, said on 17 August 2017, in a conversation with the state-run Young Journalists Club website about the effects of the intensification of U.S. sanctions on Iran regime, “The economic impact of new sanctions against our country is now heavier than before.”
He added that with these conditions, there is no longer a way to circumvent the sanctions, emphasizing that domestic production has not increased in these years.
Referring to negotiations with the P5 + 1, Abdi said: “As part of this group, whenever the U.S. issues a bill, those 5 other members will unconsciously execute the bill, because they are its subordinate and in fact do not have an independent role vis-a-vis this superpower. For example, because European banks have the greatest banking deals with the United States, they will inevitably pull back when the instructions are issued by the United States.”
He added that due to the missile activities, the circle of sanctions directly and indirectly has become larger.
