WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) — Economic sanctions against Iran are forcing Tehran to attempt to set up banks in other Muslim countries around the world, a U.S. official said.
Sanctions have increasingly curtailed Iran’s global banking activities, forcing it to look outside the country, a U.S. official told The Washington Post in a story published Thursday.
“The Iranians, we believe, are trying to set up operations in a number of places, and it’s an indication that they can’t do normal banking,” the unnamed senior administration official said. “They want to buy banks and set up banks in various places where they believe they will be able to carry out business without the United States being able to impede it.”
The official requested anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media, the Post said.
A spokesman for the Iranian mission to the United Nations declined immediate comment, saying he will seek guidance from Tehran.
The U.S. official said the Obama administration has tracked Iran’s efforts in “a number of neighboring countries and not-so-neighboring countries.”
The U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted 16 Iranian banks for allegedly supporting Iran’s nuclear program and terrorist activities, the newspaper said.
Iran’s search for new banking opportunities is a sign the sanctions are being effective; officials said they think Iran has had only limited, if any, success in secretly setting up banks.
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