U.S. Official: Trade Issues with Iran Are Not Solely Due to Our Sanctions

Jared Blank, Deputy Coordinator for Iran at the U.S. State Department, told hundreds of participants at the 'Europe Trade with Iran' conference in Zurich that companies must inform their Iranian partners about the risks of doing business with Tehran. On May 4, Blank addressed a group of 400 traders and other attendees, stating, 'Companies must inform their Iranian counterparts that it is not just the remaining sanctions [from the United States] that prevent trade with them.' According to Reuters, he mentioned that in the past 100 days, they have seen international companies telling Iranians, 'Only U.S. sanctions are preventing us from transactions.' This U.S. State Department official added, 'But when we dig deeper, and when we look closely at your initial concerns, we see that your business decisions stem from worries that go far beyond the issue of sanctions; which is not surprising.' A day earlier in Zurich, he told Al-Monitor that they wish to move forward with the implementation of the JCPOA, but the U.S. government cannot instruct banks to take actions that they consider risky. On the other hand, Bloomberg reported on May 4 that European companies entering trade with Iran are doing so without the support of major banks in the continent. They are still concerned about the hefty fines they have had to pay to the U.S. government. In 2014, the French bank BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France, agreed to pay nearly $9 billion in fines for its dealings with countries under U.S. sanctions, including Iran, to close its case in the United States. Al-Monitor states that Iranian banks are also under pressure from the policy of granting extensive loans during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency to high-risk individuals. Reuters reports that the Iranian side present at the Zurich meeting stated that European banks are avoiding trade with Iran due to U.S. pressure. However, some officials present emphasized that such a situation could ultimately be detrimental to the banks themselves. Of course, the U.S. has not banned foreign banks from trading with Iran. Reuters states that many lawyers and consultants have other concerns, ranging from complex regulations and laws to the lack of a clear mechanism for resolving trade disputes or issues of labor and corruption in Iran. Jared Blank also stated that investors familiar with these problems should privately inform their Iranian counterparts and not simply seek the easy way of 'blaming the problems on U.S. sanctions.'