Big
firms pulling out of Iran due to US sanctions rules: report
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com 02 01 06
Several
major finance and energy companies are cutting commercial ties
with Iran as US authorities step up enforcement of existing sanctions
and diplomatic pressure builds over Tehran's nuclear ambitions,
a US newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Dutch banking group ABN Amro and the UBS bank of Switzerland announced
last week that they would halt business operations in Iran and
the US energy services company Halliburton severed links last
year.
The US Justice Department is investigating all three firms for
possible violations of US sanctions against Iran, the Wall Street
Journal reported, citing lawyers, securities filings and unnamed
sources familiar with the probe.
ABN Amro last month admitted to improper transactions with Iran
through a branch in Dubai and agreed to pay 80 million dollars
in fines.
Other major firms still operating in Iran are also under scrutiny,
including HSBC bank, Standard Chartered, and BNP Paribas, the
paper wrote.
Federal authorities are conducting several sweeping sanctions
inquiries, looking at compliance with US sanctions against Iran,
Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Cuba, the report said.
The investigations are examining whether European banks with branches
in New York adhered to US sanctions and prohibitions against individuals
or firms designated as having links to terrorism.
US enforcement of the sanctions has become more strict following
demands from lawmakers in Congress in 2004, the paper reported.
"In the past, they have been lax," said Karim Sadjapour,
an analyst with the International Crisis Group told the daily.
Other companies that are not under investigation have also decided
to pull out of Iran, sometimes citing political risk related to
Iran's diplomatic isolation. The firms include Credit Suisse of
Switzerland, US energy firms Baker Hughes and ConocoPhillips,
US insurance broker AON and industrial giant General Electric.
Two Western companies, a consumer electronics manufacturer and
an auto company, have postponed contracts for factories in Iran
until at least April, the paper said, without naming the firms.
European businesses have become wary of pursuing deals in Iran
after the country's hardline president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, called
for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust as a "myth".
"That hurt them in Europe incredibly," sanctions expert
Mike Beck from the University of Georgia told the paper. "There
are real financial and economic consequences for those kinds of
actions, and this illustrates that."
Iran faces mounting international concern over its nuclear program,
which Western governments suspect is a cover for a weapons project.
Tehran insists it is a purely peaceful program designed to generate
electricty and has threatened to cut back on oil exports if UN
Security Council members choose to impose sanctions.
Foreign ministers from Britain, China, France, Russia and the
United States agreed in London on Tuesday to have Iran referred
to the UN Security Council over its disputed nuclear program.
In a compromise demanded by Russia, UN action would be put off
until at least March.
AFP
01 31 2006
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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