The US on Monday imposed new sanctions on Russia's VTB Bank over its financial ties to Iran, accusing the country's second-largest financial institution of helping Tehran to evade restrictions.
The measures against the heavily sanctioned lender are the latest by the US to isolate Iran's economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been pushing European and Gulf partners to hit sources of the Iranian regime's revenue.
Mr Bessent last week said the Treasury would impose sanctions on a “large bank” this week, although he did not identify which lender.
“Under Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise,” he said in a statement.
“Treasury will not tolerate any support to the regime and will continue to identify, expose and isolate Iran’s enablers.”
Mr Bessent announced the latest target in US President Donald Trump's maximum pressure campaign against Iran last month. The Treasury Department at the time said it was also broadening the scope of its secondary sanctions campaign, threatening to cut off the dollar access to institutions that continue to do business with Iran.
VTB had already been placed under US sanctions in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Treasury Department said VTB has moved to formalise closer banking co-ordination with Iran in recent years by opening bank offices in the country, and that it has helped to move billions of frozen assets and created a settlement system to increase bilateral trade.
Russia's VTB is the third financial institution the US has hit. The Treasury Department has previously focused on Egypt's Banque Misr Branch in the UAE, as well as a Turkish bank and its subsidiaries. The UAE Central Bank said on August 30 that it will conduct a “special and urgent examination” into the branches' activities.
The Central Bank said it expects lenders licensed in the country “not to expose the UAE’s financial system to reputational risks, to respect the laws and regulations of the countries whose financial institutions are used in conducting transactions, and not to misuse the advanced financial infrastructure of the UAE”.
The Treasury's actions did not impose full secondary sanctions on the bank.
The Treasury Department last week also imposed sanctions on Iranian commercial airlines and other targets over links to Iran's aviation sector, which Washington alleges Tehran uses to move weapons, personnel and illicit cargo.
