Iran: US sanctions on CBI violate international law

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif lashed out at the US for imposing illegal sanctions on CBI, and underlined that such unfair moves are against international law. Seif and the executive deputy head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as the Middle-East section and Iran Table Group officials, in a meeting on the sidelines of the group of 24 (G24) developing countries session in Washington on Sunday, discussed various issues of mutual interests. During the meeting, Seif criticized the US government for imposing sanctions on CBI, and said that the sanctions are in contravention of the international law and depriving a nation of free trade rights. The Iranian official further added that the government has adopted emergency plans to stem the difficulties the national economy exposed to by the arbitrary sanctions. On Tuesday, Seif left Tehran for Washington to take part in the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) in the US capital. The CBI governor, heading a high-ranking delegation, attended the joint IMF-WBG meeting in Washington on October 11-13. Seif also met central bankers and senior officials of other member-states on the sidelines of the IMF-WBG meeting. The United States imposed additional sanctions against Iran's financial sector late in December 2011. US President Barack Obama authorized a law on New Year's Eve imposing fresh sanctions on financial institutions that deal with the Central Bank of Iran, Tehran's main clearing house for oil payments. The US has also persuaded the European countries to impose the same embargos against the CBI. The extra US sanctions aim to squeeze Iran's oil sales, most of which are processed by the CBI, although many even in the West believe that the move would prove futile. During the last three years, Iran has been replacing dollar with other currencies in its trade with the outside world. Late in November 2012, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the needed permission to the Central Bank of Iran to open rupee accounts with two Indian banks, namely UCO and IDBI, as a long-lasting solution to the two countries' payment problems. Both accounts were opened in the respective banks' Mumbai branches. A top official of city-based UCO Bank said while payments for his country's oil imports would initially be in rupees, it would be then converted into a separate currency, which was yet to be decided by the apex bank. Russia, opposing oil sanctions against Iran, has long promoted the ruble as an international currency which could be used in bilateral settlements. Washington and its western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.