Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) and five other Republican Senators have petitioned the White House to apply additional sanctions on Iran’s financial sector and banks. They believe that cutting off Iran further from the global banking system will help achieve their intent of bringing down the Iranian government.
Cotton wrote in a Sept. 17 letter to President Donald Trump, “At least 14 Iranian banks remain open and connected to the SWIFT [Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications] financial messaging network for sanctions-free financial transactions, providing the regime a crucial economic lifeline.” Cotton went on, “This is despite the fact that most other Iranian financial institutions are under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury for their financial sponsorship of terrorism—including the Central Bank of Iran, which capitalizes these remaining banks and may be using them as fronts for its activities.”
Cotton proposes that the President sanction the 14 Iranian banks still accessing SWIFT, which is a system banks use to clear and settle financial transactions globally.
This is actually a policy of regime change through financial sanctions, a potential straw that breaks the camel’s back, on top of those sanctions already in effect, as Iran is shattered by the COVID-19 pandemic, medical supply shortages, and inability to sell a good amount of its oil. Cotton asserts “Iran’s desperate economic circumstances provide a critical opportunity for the regime to abandon its malign activities,” and could deal “a final blow to Iran’s financial industry.”
The Cotton letter is endorsed by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
