A top Russian diplomat criticized the U.S. for maintaining sanctions on Iran that he said hurt the country’s economy in the wake of the nuclear deal, echoing complaints the Islamic Republic has made in recent months.
“All the so-called unilateral sanctions that existed before [the nuclear] agreement was reached with Iran have stayed in place,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov told the TASS news agency Tuesday. “These unilateral sanctions are a big hindrance.”
While the U.S. has implemented the components of the agreement dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, “it hasn’t moved any further,” Ryabkov said, and remaining sanctions have impaired Iranian integration into the international business community.
“Any deal serviced in dollars goes through corresponding controlling agencies of the U.S. and can be suspended,” he said, referring to the ban on Iran’s access to the U.S. financial system and dollar.
Though international sanctions have been lifted, those remaining have led to “fewer” deals, “lower” investments, and trade that is not as “brisk and active as it was expected,” the diplomat lamented.
“Business – European, Asian, any business – exercises increased caution, and let us say carefulness, in assessing the risk that transactions with the Iranian side may involve,” Ryabkov said. “On the whole a more negative background than the [nuclear] agreement deserves emerges around it.”
Iran has also complained about not seeing sufficient economic benefits since the implementation of the nuclear deal in January, and officials there have demanded more relief, including access to the U.S. dollar.
“The Americans have said that they would lift sanctions, and they have actually done so on paper, but through other ways and methods, they are acting in a way that the result of sanctions repeal will not be witnessed at all,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini said in March.
Investors, companies, and banks have expressed wariness about doing business in Iran due to the country’s history of financing terrorism and laundering money, in addition to the sanctions still in effect.
In an effort to soothe concerns, Secretary of State John Kerry has campaignedto promote foreign business and investment in the Islamic Republic, declaring it “open for business” in May.
“We want to make it clear that legitimate business, which is clear under the definition of the agreement, is available to banks,” Kerry said. “As long as they do their normal due diligence and know who they’re dealing with, they’re not going to be held to some undefined and inappropriate standard here.”
Ryabkov’s complaint comes during a time of strengthening ties between Russia and Iran.
