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U.S. Experts Call to Impose SWIFT Sanctions on Iran's Financial Sector
(Weekly Standard) Jenna Lifhits - Thirty U.S. foreign policy experts and former officials have written to the White House to urge the administration to once again bar Iranian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging service that facilitates cross-border money transfers as part of new sanctions against Iran's financial institutions announced for November. The experts argue that "failure to achieve the disconnection of such banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system...would make it easier for the regime to endure the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions." SWIFT had barred Iran in 2012 under the threat of congressional sanctions. "The Trump administration must demonstrate its willingness to enforce sanctions targeting SWIFT's board and compel the service to act on its own accord - just as it did last year when SWIFT disconnected North Korean banks," the letter reads. It called for the president to impose all sanctions against Iran that were in place before the nuclear deal. "That includes the disconnection of the Central Bank of Iran and designated Iranian financial institutions from SWIFT." Among the signatories are former Sen. Joseph Lieberman, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and Amb. Robert Joseph, former U.S. Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation.