Trump can turn off the spigot of international cash flowing to Iran's regime
by Amir Basiri
| June 25, 2018 06:05 PM
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Serious action is called for Iran, including sanctioning the regime from the SWIFT global financial network and the U.S. State Department designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.
(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
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Senior members of Congress are asking the Trump administration to take action and demand global leaders ban Iran’s regime from enjoying access to international financial systems, according to a letter sent to the Treasury Department by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively.
This follows revelations of how former Obama administration officials provided clandestine facilitation for Tehran to bypass international sanctions and possibly establish access to billions in hard currency.The White House is being petitioned to urge members of the Financial Action Task Force to re-designate Iran on its blacklist following the regime’s continuing support for terrorism, especially throughout the Middle East. The FATF is an international organization aiming to combat money laundering.
Among the other incentives it chose to provide Tehran, the Obama administration took Iran off the FATF blacklist, paving the path for the highly flawed Iran nuclear deal. President Trump chose to exit the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The two influential members of Congress are saying the recent revelations rendering from a congressional probe into the Obama administration’s behind-the-door diplomacy for Iran’s sake is making it all the more necessary for the Trump administration to take affirmative action against Iran’s network of supporting terrorism.
FATF members are due to meet next week in Paris, and American lawmakers are hoping to see this issue brought up for discussion by the Trump administration’s envoys.
"This upcoming FATF session is particularly important following the recent release of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' report exposing new details about the previous administration's efforts to give Iran access to the U.S. financial system, including through consideration of a general license for the ‘conversion of two non-USD currencies through the limited use of the USD as an intermediate currency,'" the lawmakers’ letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reads in part.
"In the push to save its deeply flawed nuclear deal, the Obama administration unwisely backed a wide range of economic relief for Iran—including through the FATF," the lawmakers emphasize. "In June 2016, the administration supported the FATF’s decision to suspend ‘counter-measures' against Iran for one year, following Tehran's submission of an Action Plan to the FATF to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing policies.
"For the last two years, the FATF has continued to suspend these countermeasures at six-month intervals, despite the continued dangerous and belligerent actions of the Iranian regime," the lawmakers write. "Many reports have indicated the regime in Tehran actually increased financial support for its terror proxies in the wake of the nuclear deal."
Iran has bypassed restrictions on terror financing by capitalizing its cash for terror militia groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah as "legitimate popular resistance against colonial domination and foreign occupation," the lawmakers reiterate.
This is enabling "Iran to continue financing terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah," according to the letter.
"It's time to recognize that Iran has failed to take the necessary steps—despite its pledges two years ago—to be removed from the list of FATF’s high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions," the letter further reads. "The United States should now utilize its influence within the FATF to reimpose countermeasures against Iran and protect the international financial system."
Serious action is called for Iran, including sanctioning the regime from the SWIFT global financial network and the U.S. State Department designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.
Amir Basiri (@amir_bas) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an Iranian human rights activist.
Opinion
Beltway Confidential
Blog Contributors
Iran
Ali Khamenei
Nuclear Deal
Barack Obama
Rob Portman
Ed Royce
Middle East
by Amir Basiri
| June 25, 2018 06:05 PM
Print this article
Serious action is called for Iran, including sanctioning the regime from the SWIFT global financial network and the U.S. State Department designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Sign up for In Our Opinion commentary
SUBMIT
Sponsored Content
Ads by Revcontent
Senior members of Congress are asking the Trump administration to take action and demand global leaders ban Iran’s regime from enjoying access to international financial systems, according to a letter sent to the Treasury Department by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, respectively.
This follows revelations of how former Obama administration officials provided clandestine facilitation for Tehran to bypass international sanctions and possibly establish access to billions in hard currency.The White House is being petitioned to urge members of the Financial Action Task Force to re-designate Iran on its blacklist following the regime’s continuing support for terrorism, especially throughout the Middle East. The FATF is an international organization aiming to combat money laundering.
Among the other incentives it chose to provide Tehran, the Obama administration took Iran off the FATF blacklist, paving the path for the highly flawed Iran nuclear deal. President Trump chose to exit the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The two influential members of Congress are saying the recent revelations rendering from a congressional probe into the Obama administration’s behind-the-door diplomacy for Iran’s sake is making it all the more necessary for the Trump administration to take affirmative action against Iran’s network of supporting terrorism.
FATF members are due to meet next week in Paris, and American lawmakers are hoping to see this issue brought up for discussion by the Trump administration’s envoys.
"This upcoming FATF session is particularly important following the recent release of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' report exposing new details about the previous administration's efforts to give Iran access to the U.S. financial system, including through consideration of a general license for the ‘conversion of two non-USD currencies through the limited use of the USD as an intermediate currency,'" the lawmakers’ letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reads in part.
"In the push to save its deeply flawed nuclear deal, the Obama administration unwisely backed a wide range of economic relief for Iran—including through the FATF," the lawmakers emphasize. "In June 2016, the administration supported the FATF’s decision to suspend ‘counter-measures' against Iran for one year, following Tehran's submission of an Action Plan to the FATF to address deficiencies in its anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing policies.
"For the last two years, the FATF has continued to suspend these countermeasures at six-month intervals, despite the continued dangerous and belligerent actions of the Iranian regime," the lawmakers write. "Many reports have indicated the regime in Tehran actually increased financial support for its terror proxies in the wake of the nuclear deal."
Iran has bypassed restrictions on terror financing by capitalizing its cash for terror militia groups such as Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah as "legitimate popular resistance against colonial domination and foreign occupation," the lawmakers reiterate.
This is enabling "Iran to continue financing terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah," according to the letter.
"It's time to recognize that Iran has failed to take the necessary steps—despite its pledges two years ago—to be removed from the list of FATF’s high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions," the letter further reads. "The United States should now utilize its influence within the FATF to reimpose countermeasures against Iran and protect the international financial system."
Serious action is called for Iran, including sanctioning the regime from the SWIFT global financial network and the U.S. State Department designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization.
Amir Basiri (@amir_bas) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an Iranian human rights activist.
Opinion
Beltway Confidential
Blog Contributors
Iran
Ali Khamenei
Nuclear Deal
Barack Obama
Rob Portman
Ed Royce
Middle East
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