E.U. asked to cut off Iran's SWIFT access

oil sanctions

March 4, 2013 

European Union leaders are scheduled to meet March 7 to consider a U.S. proposal that the E.U. cut off Iran’s access to a central European financial system that enables global transactions in euros, according to U.S. government officials apprised of the meeting.

U.S. officials have criticized the E.U. for allowing Iran to carry out financial transactions via the European Central Bank (ECB), which U.S. government officials say allows Tehran to skirt Western economic sanctions

Reuters is reporting that a European Union court has ruled against the EU banking sanctions imposed on one of Iran’s largest banks, which extends to the payment sanctions imposed by Swift in March of last year. This represents the second such judgment against the banking sanctions and brings into question the legitimacy of using the Swift payments network as an economic weapon.

On Tuesday, the EU’s General Court ruled that, in the case of Bank Saderat, there was insufficient evidence demonstrating that the bank was involved in Iran’s nuclear program. Last week, the court issued a similar ruling in the case of Bank Mellat, the largest private sector lender in Iran. Boycotted by the EU since July 2010 and blocked out of Swift since March 2012, the two banks had filed suit with the European court to challenge those sanctions. EU