“US’ new designation of Central Bank displays: – desperation & the failure of its “max pressure” – the preventing of CBI from financing import of food & medicine for our people – #B_Team’s fear of US return to negotiation – #B_Team’s efforts to drag @realdonaldtrump into war,” wrote Iranian Foreing Minister Zarif in a tweet on Saturday.
His tweet came a day after the US Department of the Treasury announced that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had taken action against the CBI, the National Development Fund of Iran (NDF), and Etemad Tejarate Pars Co. under its ‘counterterrorism’ authority.
It claimed that the CBI had provided billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), its Quds Force and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
“The new sanctions are aimed at blocking Iran’s international transactions and its access to food and medicine. This move is unacceptable and dangerous,” Zarif had said later in the day.
Meanwhile, CBI Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said that the designation revealed just how empty-handed the US is in pursuing the pressure campaign against Iran.
- source : Mehrnews
