Senators Call for ‘Crippling’ Sanctions on Iran Central Bank
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators called on President Barack Obama to impose sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran to help thwart Iran’s nuclear programs.
“We must do more to increase the economic pressure on the regime,” the senators wrote today in a letter to Obama.
The letter was signed by 92 senators, led by Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, and Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York.
“The time has come to impose crippling sanctions on Iran’s financial system by cutting off the CBI,” the senators wrote, referring to the Central Bank of Iran. “There is strong bipartisan support in Congress for the imposition of sanctions.”
David Cohen, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in May that “the activities off the Central Bank of Iran have been, and continue to be, a focus of the Treasury Department,” the letter noted.
The bank “lies at the center” of Iran’s efforts to circumvent U.S. and multilateral sanctions, the senators said.
The Central Bank of Iran, also known as Bank Markazi, was created in 1960 and remains the primary “banker to the government” of Iran, according to a press release issued by Kirk and Schumer.
The U.S. in May imposed sanctions on seven foreign companies for doing business with Iran’s energy industry in ways that might bolster the country’s “illicit” nuclear activities, according to the State Department. It also imposed sanctions on 16 non-U.S. companies and individuals for aiding weapons and missile programs in Iran, North Korea and Syria.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Lerman in Washington at dlerman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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