Iran: ‘The Americans Have Not Acted on Their Promises’

Apparently, the Iranians are unfamiliar with the sloth like deliberate nature of our government. Several months following lifting the sanctions from Iran and they’re still unable to get lines of credit or access to the $100 some odd billion held in foreign banks.

Why do these crazy middle easterners keep all of their money in western banks?

This is a very amusing story, especially since everyone is super critical of Obama for allegedly lifting said sanctions. The truth is fantastic. We’re fucking with them on a giant scale, while making deals using their money ‘frozen’  in escrow.

Iranian hopes of rapidly ending the country’s economic isolation are fading as particularly European banks – some of which have already been hit by hit huge U.S. fines for sanctions busting – fear falling foul of the many other restrictions imposed by Washington that remain in force.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has accused the United States of foot-dragging following the official implementation in January of a nuclear deal with major powers.
“The Americans have not acted on their promises and (only) removed the sanctions on paper,” he said in a televised address on Sunday, complaining that international financial transactions faced problems because banks “fear the Americans”.
U.S. banks are still forbidden to do business with Iran and while lenders based elsewhere are not covered by this ban, major problems remain. Chief among these are rules prohibiting transactions in dollars – the world’s main business currency – from being processed through the U.S. financial system.

“We have to try to put pressure on America to make this issue clear. Otherwise, removing the sanctions does not mean anything,” said Ferial Mostofi, chairwoman of privately-owned Iranian project management firm KDD Group.
“If the banking situation stays as today, definitely we shall be facing problems for the payments,” said Mostofi, who also chairs the Investment Commission at the Iran Chamber of Commerce.
The U.S. Treasury, which is responsible for enforcing sanctions on Iran, gave no immediate response to a Reuters request for comment.
Iranians based in Dubai, historically one of Iran’s main trading partners, complain they cannot get letters of credit to finance deals with their home country, while others have even had their company bank accounts closed in recent weeks.
The problems are also complicating Iran’s plans to sell more oil, as well as recover up to $100 billion in assets that had been frozen by the sanctions in foreign bank accounts.
Since January, Iran has struck agreements worth an estimated $50 billion with countries including Italy, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Germany and others involving trade, project finance and other investment.
Agreements include a contract to buy 118 Airbus jets worth $27 billion. However, the funding needed to turn agreements into firm deals is another matter.
One Airbus executive told a conference in Paris last month that “we only see the back of banks at the moment”, telling them: “Don’t be afraid!”
Banks remain deterred by a $9 billion U.S. fine on BNP Paribas in 2014 for violating U.S. financial sanctions and other penalties, and the head of the French banking federation told the conference that lenders had yet to be assured of “complete legal security and clarity”.
That will be tough as long as Washington keeps the ban on processing dollar transactions for Iran in the U.S. system.
“Until U.S. sanctions are lifted European banks with major operations in the States, of which there are many, will still be exposed to onerous trade restrictions unless they can prove complete separation of European and U.S. divisions of their business,” said George Booth, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons.
“That’s easier said than done. It should not be underestimated the level of internal restructuring required to satisfy this criteria,” said Booth, who advises firms hoping to do business with Iran.

All of those airplane deals they announced were mere press releases, nothing tangible about them at all, sans the help of evil western banks.