FINANCIAL TIMES: The US is pushing the European Union to increase the pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme by stopping two Iranian banks from operating on European soil.
The plan to take steps against Banks Saderat and Melli – a move also backed by Paris and London – would build on a United Nations Security Council resolution that the US and the EU hope to push through this month.
So far, Germany, Italy and other European states have resisted taking EU action to ban Saderat and Melli – which Washington alleges are involved in terrorist financing and proliferation activities – because neither bank has yet been the subject of UN action.
The lack of an EU ban has left the UK, the US’s closest ally, unable to prevent a branch of Saderat from operating in the City of London – a fact which blunts the effectiveness of the US’s drive for international action against the banks. US pushes EU to shut down Iranian banks >>> By Daniel Dombey in Washington, Roula Khalaf and James Blitz in London
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
