‘Terror aid’: US hits Iran banker

THE US Treasury has imposed sanctions on Iran’s central bank governor and another senior official in the bank for allegedly providing support for terrorist activities, drawing condemnation from Tehran.

The latest escalation in tensions came as European officials met Iran’s foreign minister in Brussels to find ways to salvage the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal following President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the accord and reimpose sanctions.

The US Treasury named Valiollah Seif, Iran’s central bank governor, and Ali Tarzali, the assistant director of the international department at the central bank of Iran, as “specially designated global terrorists” for allegedly assisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force in funnelling millions of dollars to support Hezbollah, the Tehran-backed Lebanese group.

“It is appalling, but not surprising, that Iran’s senior-most banking official would conspire with the IRGC-QF to facilitate funding of terror groups like Hezbollah,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said “The US will not permit Iran’s increasingly brazen abuse of the international financial system.”

The new sanctions cut off Iran’s access to a “critical banking network”, the Treasury said, adding that it seeks to “stifle Iran’s ability to abuse the US and regional financial system”. The action against Seif does not sanction the Central Bank of Iran, but the bank is targeted under the sanctions Trump had reinstated.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Qassemi described the measures against Seif as “irrational and hostile” US policies toward the Islamic Republic.

The bank governor has also recently been attacked at home, with some MPs and hardline opponents of President Hassan Rouhani accusing him of mismanaging the banking industry and currency markets amid a slump in its currency, the rial. Trump’s withdrawing from the nuclear deal dealt a major blow to the moderate Rouhani. – Bloomberg