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Japanese banks put an end to all transactions related to Iran, according to a November deadline set by the United States following the withdrawal of US President Donald Trump in May from a nuclear deal with Iran. According to a document seen by Reuters yesterday, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan's largest bank, will suspend all Iran-related transactions in accordance with US sanctions reimposed on Tehran this year. "It will take similar measures," said the banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group. "The decision by Mitsubishi UFJ is likely to force Japanese companies to stop buying Iranian crude oil because their banking unit accounts for most of these imports," industry sources said.
The bank was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in 2014 because of its false representation of US regulators on its relations with countries subject to sanctions, including Iran. "The bank fears US sanctions, so it can not handle business, other Japanese banks are likely to be in the same situation," said an analyst who asked not to be identified in because of the sensitivity of the problem. Japan is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian oil, but the country's oil refineries have said: "It may be necessary to stop the shipment of Iranian oil from October," he said. he can not get the exemption from US sanctions. "
The document shows that the bank has notified its customers in Japan the decision to ban transactions with Iranian financial institutions after a 180-day liquidation period ending on November 4. "The bank can review its policy if the US does other guidelines," the document adds. In anticipation of US sanctions, foreign investors began liquidating their activities in Iran as companies withdrew. A senior US official said yesterday that the United States and the UAE had successfully dismantled a network to transfer illegal funds to Iran as Washington intensified its efforts to restrict the trade and access of the United States. Iran to the hard currency of the region. "We were together to set up an exchange network that was transferring millions of dollars to the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard," said Sigal Mandelker, US Under Secretary of State for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Foreign exchange companies used the UAE financial system to transfer funds from Iran and then convert them into US dollars for Iran-backed groups in the region. She told reporters that the network, which was led by senior officials of the Central Bank of Iran, falsified documents and used fake companies and a false facade for its transactions. She did not give more details about the operation. In early June, the UAE's central bank announced that it had reduced the activity of seven foreign exchange companies due to unspecified violations of anti-money laundering rules and so on.
Iran condemned the US campaign which she described as unwarranted interference in her affairs. Mr Mandelker said that "Gulf governments and financial institutions are cooperating closely with the United States because they agree on the damaging influence of Iran in the region. ". "Washington is trying to restrict Iran's trade in general, not just oil and gas sales, which account for more than half of Iran's export earnings," she said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on US allies to help put economic pressure on Iran and accused Tehran of continuing to sell arms in the Middle East despite the resolutions of the United States. l & # 39; UN. "We have to cut all the funding that the Iranian regime uses to finance terrorism and proxy wars," Pompeiro wrote in a tweet on Twitter before a scheduled meeting with Federica Mujerini, head of the EU's foreign policy in Brussels.
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