Reuters: The United States has targeted only one bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Noor Islamic Bank, over its business dealings with Iran, a UAE official said on Wednesday. ABU DHABI – Feb 29 (Reuters) – The United States has targeted only one bank in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Noor Islamic Bank, over its business dealings with Iran, a UAE official said on Wednesday.
Asked whether the United States had complained about other UAE banks, Khalid al-Ghaith, UAE assistant foreign minister for economic affairs, told Reuters: “They were just talking about Noor Islamic Bank.”
He added, “We are still working with the U.S. government and continue discussing to protect our bank sector and companies and continue this dialogue. This is what we are doing as a government.”
Washington is pressing for banks around the world to cut ties with Iran as part of sanctions against Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.
Citing people briefed on the operation, the Wall Street Journal reported that under U.S. pressure, Noor Islamic Bank agreed in December to close off what they described as Iran’s single largest channel for repatriating foreign-currency oil receipts. (Reporting by Martina Fuchs, Writing by Andrew Torchia, Editing by Sitaraman Shankar)
