MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Moscow and Tehran the security of their trade and economic operations and protect them from external influence, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
"As for cooperation between Russia and Iran in the interbank sector, it is consistent and efficient, the core working groups operate within the framework of a bilateral structure for trade and economic cooperation. Moscow and Tehran have worked and continue to work well and systematically long before the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to protect their lawful economic ties from external influences. This is a standard risk management work. Ensuring reliable and secure finance transmission channels, and increasing the share of mutual settlements in national currencies are its key elements," she said.
According to Zakharova, Moscow regrets that the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) complied with the unilateral US anti-Iran sanctions imposed in November and disconnected a number of banks and credit organizations, including the Central Bank of Iran, from the system. "We don’t have information that the decision would have been authorized by the UN Security Council or any international legal body whose decisions would be legitimate. It is surprising that the European authorities once again did nothing and allowed extraterritorial use of sanctions against a strictly financial structure under Belgian jurisdiction," she added.
On November 2, US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin announced that Washington may impose sanctions against SWIFT in connection with Iran. According to him, the banking system was informed about the need to disconnect any Iranian financial institutions that would come under US sanctions. However, Mnuchin noted that an exception will be made for financial transactions of a humanitarian nature involving non-sanctioned legal entities.
SWIFT is the international interbank system of information transmission and payments. Over 11,000 financial institutions of more than 200 countries of the world are connected to it. The possibility of disconnecting Russia from SWIFT is discussed since 2014, when first anti-Russian sanctions related to the situation in Ukraine were introduced.
