March 16, 2012 | Quote

Iran Banks Face Cut-Off From SWIFT Network

“This was a political blow to Iran to be expelled from what is the financial equivalent of the UN,” said Mark Dubowitz, who has been advising the White House and Congress on this and other means of putting economic pressure on Tehran.

“This is a sign that the regime is increasingly politically isolated and that the United States and Europe, despite disagreements on details, are united in their campaign to wage economic warfare on the Iranian regime,” continued Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Congress has been pursuing legislation calling for Iran’s exclusion from SWIFT that would have affected SWIFT itself had it not complied.

Dubowitz said the Obama administration was able to leverage the congressional effort to help convince the EU to issue a directive to SWIFT on its own, before legislation was put in place.

Dubowitz called the move “unprecedented” by SWIFT, which pointed to the extreme level of international sanctions on Iran in making its first-ever decision to exclude a country’s banks.

Read the full article here.

Issues:

Iran Iran Sanctions