Iran Bank Withdraws Assets from Europe

Iran’s central bank has begun withdrawing assets held by its bank in Europe in order to escape the latest round of international economic sanctions over its nuclear program. The governor of the bank Mahmoud Bahmani told the Farsi News Agency that they had predicted the situation six months ago and were taking moves to “address the needs of our people during the sanctions.” He added that under the current situation, there was not yet any freeze of Iranian assets by the European Union. The amount of money involved was not given, nor was the destination of the transferred funds. The US and EU have imposed tough sanctions on business with Iran, with leading Iranian banks being targeted due to alleged financing of weapons proliferation. Bahmani said the main strategy for dealing with international sanctions was to reduce the consumption of imported goods.