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U.S. Warns Against Business with Iran
(New York Times) Rick Gladstone - The Obama administration intensified efforts on Thursday to counter what officials called a misimpression that the six-month nuclear agreement with Iran had opened the door to new economic opportunities with the country, emphasizing that nearly all sanctions remained in force and warning businesses not to engage in any deals still pending after the accord's July 20 expiration. As if to punctuate the administration's assertion that little had changed, the Treasury Department announced a $152 million settlement with Clearstream Banking, a Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Borse securities exchange, for having allowed Iran to bypass sanctions through the use of the company's access to the American banking system. Administration officials have emphasized that the broad array of sanctions on Iran remain fully in force, most notably the European embargo on Iran's oil and the exclusion of Iranian banks from a global communications network that is critical to international finance.