UPDATE: EU Lifts Sanctions on Five Iranians, Including Ex-Bank Chairman
By Benoit Faucon
LONDON--The Council of the European Union has lifted sanctions on five high-level individuals, including the former chairman of Bank Mellat, according to its official journal. The decision is a rare move to relax some Iran-related restrictions, and highlights that sanctions are not necessarily irreversible, particularly when challenged in court.
In its official journal published Friday, the European Union said it had lifted sanctions on five Iranians, including Ali Divandari, the former chairman of Bank Mellat, the largest private bank in Iran.
A European Union spokesman couldn't immediately comment.
At least three of the men, sanctioned for their involvement with Iranian private banks, had brought actions seeking a lifting of sanctions with a European Union court in Luxembourg, according to previous editions of the official journal.
Mr. Divandari was chairman of Bank Mellat when he was sanctioned in 2010 but left his position last year. He was still awaiting a ruling on his legal challenge when he received news of his removal from the sanctions list, said Zaiwalla and Co., the London law firm that represented him along with two other delisted persons.
The EU has stepped up its sanctions regime on Iran as it seeks to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program. Brussels suspects it has military aims, which Tehran denies. Cases seeking an end to sanctions on Bank Mellat itself continue in London and Luxembourg. They argue that damaging the private sector in Iran is a breach of human rights because it has no say in government policies, Sarosh Zawailla, head of Zaiwalla & Co. said.
In an interview late in June in Tehran, Mr. Divandari, who is still a director at Bank Mellat, concurred, saying "by applying these sanctions, you are attacking the private sector" and that "will affect human rights." As a result, millions of poor Iranians--many customers and shareholders--are also directly hurt, he said. For instance, an association representing 42 million of disadvantaged Iranians was given 30% of the banks' shares under the government's privatization program, Mr. Divandari added. Much of the rest is owned by pensioners who rely on them for their retirement and their holdings have lost value due to sanctions, he said.
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