President Obama said Friday evening that his administration is not considering allowing Iran to use dollars for business transactions.
Despite a report from unnamed U.S. officials in the Wall Street Journal, “that is not actually the approach that we’re taking,” Obama said in response to a question during a press conference closing his final nuclear summit.
Treasury spokeswoman Betsy Bourassa also stressed that, “the Wall Street Journal story is inaccurate. The administration has not been and is not planning to grant Iran access to the U.S. financial system.”
Obama said the International Atomic Energy Agency reaffirmed earlier Friday that Iran has carried out its end of the historic nuclear deal it struck in August with six world powers. That being the case, the world should uphold its part of the deal in regards to lifting specified sanctions he said.
He said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is trying to offer nervous international businesses “clarity” about what is inbounds with remaining sanctions and what is not. However, he said Tehran does not need to deal in dollars to conduct business. He said other currencies, such as the euro, are available to the country.
Obama then urged Iran to stop making provocations, such as testing ballistic missiles that make international companies leery about entering the Iranian market. Such conduct, and statements like Israel should be destroyed, do not instill confidence that it Iran is a safe, stable place to conduct business.
This story was corrected to note that it was unnamed U.S. officials quoted in the Wall Street Journal story, not unnamed Treasury Department officials.
