Three U.S. Congress Members React to Treasury Department’s New Guidance on Iran Dollar Sanctions
Three American lawmakers reacted to new guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department regarding sanctions on Iran’s dollar transactions, describing it with phrases such as “presidential overreach,” “White House concessions to Iran,” and “giving a green light to terrorists.”
Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who has repeatedly expressed his opposition to the nuclear deal in recent verbal sparring with Iran’s Foreign Minister, responded on Sunday to the U.S. Treasury’s decision in a statement, writing: There was previously an agreement under which the U.S. dollar could not be used to facilitate transactions with Iranian sanctioned entities, but the new guidance violates this understanding.
According to Senator Cotton, by allowing transactions between foreign companies affiliated with American companies and Iranian entities, the U.S. President has effectively disregarded Congress’s decision.
This Republican senator from Arkansas was referring to the new Treasury Department guidance issued two days ago, coinciding with the visit of Ali Tayyebnia, Iran’s Minister of Economy, who attended a joint session with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington.
Under the new guidance, companies and commercial institutions that were previously not permitted to conduct dollar transfers in transactions with Iran can now make such transfers through banks outside U.S. jurisdiction, provided they do not enter U.S. financial systems.
In response to this guidance, Hossein Ghazavi, Deputy Minister of Economy of Iran, considered this action positive, but announced that this guidance does not create any significant change in the relations of foreign banks with Iran.
Reactions from Mark Kirk and Mike Pompeo
Besides Senator Cotton, Mark Kirk, a Republican senator from Illinois, also reacted to the new Treasury Department guidance on Iran’s dollar sanctions.
Kirk’s reaction comes as he chairs the Senate Banking Committee, which effectively oversees the enforcement of sanctions laws against Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Senator Kirk characterized the Treasury guidance as “new concessions being granted by the White House to Tehran.”
Another lawmaker who responded is Mike Pompeo, a Republican representative from Kansas. Mr. Pompeo called the Treasury’s action “giving a green light to terrorists.”
This U.S. House member told the Wall Street Journal that in his view, the new Treasury Department guidance removes obstacles for companies controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to conduct business with foreign companies.
He added: These actions indicate that the Obama administration rules out the notion that Iran will become a democratic country or closer to the West in the future.
The sanction prohibiting transactions with Iran using the dollar is among the remaining U.S. sanctions against Iran. These sanctions have been imposed due to support for terrorism, human rights violations, and missile program development.
The Islamic Republic of Iran attributes the remaining problems with international financial transactions with Iran to U.S. breach of the JCPOA and the nuclear agreement.
This is while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has repeatedly attended meetings with managers of major European banks to clarify Iran’s lifted sanctions, and the U.S. State Department has also announced that it has sent delegations to other countries for guidance and clarification regarding Iran sanctions.
Source: Voice of America
