EU attacks Iranian economy
IRAN. European Union is stepping up its efforts to enforce sanctions against Iran. As AP reports, Iran was largely cut off from global commerce Thursday after the company that handles worldwide financial transactions, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, said it was severing ties with many Iranian banks to back EU sanctions against Tehran.
SWIFT is a banking hub crucial to oil, financial transactions and other trades and global financial transactions are impossible to conduct without using it.
Because of its reach, SWIFT’s decision to cut off some 30 Iranian banks and subsidiaries could hinder not only banking but also the country’s lucrative crude oil industry and possibly hurt Iranian households that depend on remittances from relatives living abroad, AP reports.
“Disconnecting banks is an extraordinary and unprecedented step for SWIFT,” said Lazaro Campos, chief executive of the company.