Stating that the US new sanctions against 18 Iranian banks and financial institutions have only political, media and propaganda implications, Hamid Ghanbari International Director General of Central Bank of Iran said that all the Iranian banks on the recent list were sanctioned when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA.
Therefore, nothing new has happened in relation to these financial institutions, he added.
Explaining the reasons why these sanctions did not work, Ghanbari said that if a bank has not been yet sanctioned and it is sanctioned for the first time, this will affect the brokerage relationship of that bank and foreign banks will review their financial relations with the sanctioned bank according to the sanctions imposed.
Despite the most severe sanctions imposed on the country's banking and financial system, foreign exchange for basic goods and machinery required by production units has been provided, he added, saying that in the first six months of this year, $ 5.3 billion of foreign exchange for basic goods has been provided.
The US Treasury Department on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s financial sector, targeting 18 banks in an effort to further choke off Iranian revenues.
It claimed in a statement that the prohibitions did not apply to transactions to sell agricultural commodities, food, medicine or medical devices to Iran, saying it understood the need for humanitarian goods.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and began re-imposing US sanctions that had been eased under the accord.
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