New U.S. Sanction Isolates Iranian Central Bank Head

President Donald Trump has made good on his promise to keep up the economic pressure on Iran even as he withdraws from the international agreement signed last year. As of Tuesday, it’s illegal for anyone to do business with the head of Iran’s Central Bank. Valliolah Seif, and Ali Tarzali are said to have channeled millions of dollars through the banking system and into the coffers of the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Putting the shoe on the other foot, Iranian officials are now in the position of being aggressively solicited by European nations to remain in the agreement albeit without the United States as a co-signor. Non-Americans are also in jeopardy of being sanctioned themselves by virtue of secondary sanctions also applied to Seif and Tarzali. Because the American financial institutions are so intrinsic to international banking, being banned from doing business with U.S. organizations could be the financial death-knell to companies violating the American sanctions.