BRUSSELS (AP) ? An international banking clearinghouse crucial to Iran's oil sales said Friday that it is prepared to discontinue services to Iranian financial institutions targeted by EU and U.S. sanctions.
The statement by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, comes as the Obama administration is pushing for Iran to be evicted from the Brussels-based hub.
The clearinghouse said it stands ready to stop services to sanctioned Iranian financial institutions once it has clarity on what will be required by laws. It added that the decision "reflects the extraordinary and highly exceptional circumstances of significant multi-lateral international support for the intensification of sanctions against Iran."
Getting Iran ousted from SWIFT would leapfrog the current slow-pressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop what the U.S. and its allies contend is a drive toward developing and building nuclear weapons. It also perhaps would buy time for the U.S. to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring.
But such a penalty could send oil prices soaring when many of the world's economies are still frail. It also could hurt ordinary Iranians and undercut the reputation of SWIFT.
SWIFT said Friday that U.S. and EU efforts to ramp up the pressure on Iran could affect its ability to provide services to Iranian clients.
Although SWIFT, a Brussels-based hub used by virtually every nation in the world, said it "understand(s) that the European Union is now drafting new international sanctions regulations which directly affect" its ability to provide services to Iranian financial institutions, an EU official said the bloc was not preparing new sanctions on Iran.
"What we're working on is implementing the measures we adopted last month," said the official who could not be identified under standing rules.
SWIFT, which is used by virtually every nation in the world, noted that it also is following the progress of a bill passed by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee regarding Iran which has similar intention of curbing institutions such as itself to provide services to Iranian financial organizations.
More than 40 Iranian banks and institutions use SWIFT to process financial transactions, and losing access to that flow of international funds could badly damage the Islamic republic's economy. It would also probably hurt average Iranians more than the welter of existing banking sanctions already in place since prices for household goods would rise while the value of Iranian currency would drop.
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