IANS | 01 Aug, 2013
US President Barack Obama Tuesday announced new sanctions
against foreign banks that help Iran sell its oil.
Obama said the latest round of sanctions is to "deter Iran from
establishing payment mechanisms for the purchase of Iranian oil to circumvent
existing sanctions".
China's Bank of Kunlun and Iraq's Elaf Islamic Bank have been targeted for
"knowingly" enabling financial transactions for blacklisted Iranian
banks, Xinhua reported.
They "facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of
Iranian banks that are subject to sanctions for their links to Iran's illicit
proliferation activities."
Foreign financial institutions, whose governments still purchase Iranian crude
oil as of June 28 this year, will be denied access to the US financial market,
as per US law.
Twenty countries, including Japan, India, Malaysia, South Korea and China, have
got US waiver due to their governments' reduced purchases of Iranian oil.