SWIFT cuts financial ties with Iran over EU sanctions
Press TV – March 16, 2012
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) says it has decided to discontinue services to Iranian banks which are subject to financial sanctions imposed by the European Union.
“Disconnecting banks is an extraordinary and unprecedented step for SWIFT. It is a direct result of international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran,” the Associated Press quoted SWIFT CEO Lazaro Campos as saying on Thursday.
The Financial Times described the service as “one of the key bits of plumbing in the world’s interbank payment systems,” adding that 30 Iranian banks will be cut off from the service as of Saturday, March 17.
The US and EU charge Iran with pursuing military goals under the cover of its civil nuclear energy program and have imposed several rounds of international and unilateral sanctions against Iran to force the country give up its nuclear energy program.
On January 23, the EU foreign ministers approved new sanctions on Iran’s financial and oil sectors, which ban member countries from importing Iranian crude or dealing with its central bank.
Experts believe that SWIFT’s new action is meant to fully enforce EU sanctions, as global financial transactions are impossible without using SWIFT.
Despite tightening sanctions, some analysts have noted that Iran is still able to skirt the sanctions in a few ways. The country, they say, may exchange oil for cash, gold or other commodities directly. Also, Iranian banks that have not been targeted by EU sanctions can still sell oil.
“Throughout the history of the oil trade, someone always gets around trade embargoes one way or another,” said Jim Ritterbusch, a veteran oil trader and analyst.
SWIFT is a clearing system, which oversees the network used by most of the world’s largest banks to conduct financial wire transfers.
SWIFT handles cross-border payments for more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries. It enables users to exchange financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs and reducing risks.
Established in 1973, the system has been overseen by major central banks, including the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
Related articles
- SWIFT financial service cuts Iran off – RT (rt.com)
- India, South Korea increase oil purchases from Iran: IEA (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Iran sanctions will cause many problems for Italy: Monti (alethonews.wordpress.com)
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The Curious Case of the Missing Professor Mifsud
By Johanna Ross | August 13, 2019
In The Times newspaper on July 30th, appeared a short and succinct article, easily missed were it not for its intriguing headline: ‘Missing academic Joseph Mifsud at heart of Mueller investigation’. The academic in question, one may or may not have heard of, depending on the extent to which one is reliant on mainstream media for keeping abreast of the news. But anyone attempting to keep up with the complex and murky world of the Mueller investigation, may be familiar with the name of this mysterious and elusive figure.
For it is none other than Professor Mifsud, affiliated with both the Universities of Stirling and East Anglia in the UK, that was identified by the FBI as being the source of the information that Russia had ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton. And intriguingly, the same Professor Mifsud who disappeared in October 2017 and has been missing ever since.
It was in April 2016 that Mifsud, who was qualified in education but somehow managed to find his way into the world of international diplomacy (becoming director of the London Academy of Diplomacy in 2012), reportedly met George Papadopoulos, foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, where he is said to have told him that the Russian government had ‘dirt on Hillary Clinton’. This information was then allegedly passed by Papadopoulos to the Australian High Commissioner in London, before being repeated to US authorities; that effectively Papdopoulos had known about the DNC hack prior to it being carried out. In short, Mifsud was the key to the whole ‘Russiagate’ scandal. … continue
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