- APFeb. 1, 2012: In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian President's office, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, arrives at the parliament to deliver the new year's budget, as he is surrounded by lawmakers, in Tehran, Iran.
WASHINGTON – The
U.S. Treasury Department disrupted a Dubai-based banking operation that
Washington believes had become Tehran's primary conduit for evading
international sanctions and processing its oil sales, according to
people briefed on the operation.
The effort was particularly sensitive because the targeted institution in the United Arab Emirates
is partly owned by the local government of Dubai, a close U.S. ally.
The chairman of the bank, called the Noor Islamic Bank, is the son of
Dubai's ruler.
In mid-December, Noor agreed to close off
what the people briefed on the operation characterized as Iran's
single-largest channel for repatriating foreign-currency oil receipts --
facilitating as much as 60 percent of Iran's foreign oil sales by late
last year, they estimated.
That figure couldn't be corroborated. But
last year, Iran is estimated to have earned more than $80 billion from
oil exports -- transactions that came under increasing pressure over the
course of 2011 as U.S. sanctions also closed Tehran's banking channels
in India, East Asia and Europe
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/29/us-treasury-department-cuts-irans-cash-pipeline/#ixzz1nltwgn5Z
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