Iran Cut off From Global Financial System
Iran was largely cut off from global commerce Thursday after the company that handles worldwide financial transactions said it was severing ties with many Iranian banks to back EU sanctions against Tehran. - The action by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, aims to enforce European Union sanctions discouraging Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. It will go a long way toward isolating Iran financially. SWIFT is a banking hub crucial to oil, financial transactions and other trades and global financial transactions are impossible to conduct without using it. Because of its reach, SWIFT's decision to cut off some 30 Iranian banks and subsidiaries could hinder not only banking but also the country's lucrative crude oil industry and possibly hurt Iranian households that depend on remittances from relatives living abroad.
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