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| By Associated Press January 10, 2007 |
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The United States, tightening the financial vise on Tehran, moved Tuesday to block the financial assets of a major Iranian bank.
The action against Bank Sepah, a state-owned financial institution, means any assets belonging to the bank found in the United States must be frozen. Americans also are forbidden from doing business with the financial institution.
The Treasury Department also added to its terror-blocking list Bank Sepah International Plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank Sepah, and Ahmad Derakhshandeh, chairman and director of Bank Sepah.
The department alleges that Bank Sepah provides financial support and services to Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, Shahid Hemmat Industries Group and the Shahid Bakeri Industries Group -- three groups the United States has accused of helping to spread weapons of mass destruction.
The government said that Bank Sepah is the "bank of choice" -- at least since 2000 -- for Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, that oversees all of Iran's missile industries and is the overall coordinator of Iran's missile program.
The department also alleged that Bank Sepah "has facilitated Iran's international purchases of sensitive material for its missile program."
It marked the United States' latest move against Iran, a country the United States accuses of fostering terrorism and whose nuclear ambitions have drawn international rebuke.
Last month, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose economic sanctions on Iran. It did so because the country has refused to end a uranium enrichment program that the United States says is aimed at building nuclear weapons. |
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