US lets two Iran banks off UN sanctions list
The United States, in a confidence-building gesture with Iran, did not block a Venezuelan request to delist two Iranian banks from a UN Security Council sanctions list.
WASHINGTON — Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity with Iran over the weekend that saw US prisoners freed, the nuclear deal go into effect and sanctions lifted, the United States permitted the removal of two Iranian banks from a United Nations sanctions list, US officials said Jan. 19.
The delisting of the Iranian banks — Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International — occurred at the UN Security Council on Jan. 17 at the request of Venezuela. The United States decided not to block the request, US officials said.
“We saw this as something we could do as a confidence-building measure and a goodwill gesture,” a US administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor Jan. 19.
In the course of two separate tracks of negotiations with the Iranians — on the nuclear issue and the humanitarian release of detained citizens — Iran had sought the delisting of the banks from UN Security Council sanctions. But the issue was not resolved by the time negotiations for the final Iran nuclear deal reached agreement in July 2014. The United States had already determined that it would remove secondary sanctions on the banks, the US official said.
