House Speaker Paul Ryan warned President Obama on Thursday to abandon any plan to let Iran use U.S. currency in its international business transactions, after a new report surfaced that the Treasury Department was considering the move.
“These reports are deeply concerning,” Ryan stated. “As Iran continues to undermine the spirit of its nuclear agreement with illicit ballistic missile tests, the Obama administration is going out of its way to help Tehran reopen for business. The president should abandon this idea.”
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Treasury may allow foreign governments to briefly convert their currencies into dollars to complete transactions with Tehran. The change would still deny Iran access to the U.S. financial system, however.
Such sanctions relief was not part of the nuclear deal Iran struck with six world powers last summer. The Obama administration has said for months that the nuclear agreement was focused only on items related to Iran’s nuclear program, and the sudden move to consider lifting the dollar sanction could further anger Republicans.
A senior administration official didn’t deny the AP report.
“As long as Iran continues to meet its nuclear commitments, we will continue to meet our[s],” the official stated. As Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew “conveyed previously to” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., “as part of our implementation, we will continue to analyze the sanctions lifting and its effects to date, while we keep pressuring Iran on other issues of concern.”
Royce fired off a letter to President Obama last week when word first got out that the dollar-conversion easing was on the table.
Ryan, Royce and Republicans are not the only concerned lawmakers.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., stated his concern shortly after the AP report.
“The power and central role of the U.S. banking system remains a critical tool toward combatting global terror finance and illicit trade, and it should remain that way,” Hoyer stated.
“I want to make clear my concerns that the administration had indicated that there would be no further concessions beyond those specifically negotiated and briefed to Congress” last summer, he continued. “I do not support granting Iran any new relief without a corresponding concession.
“We lose leverage otherwise, and Iran receives something for free,” he stated.
Ryan and most congressional Republicans think the Obama administration should keep frozen Iran’s U.S. assets, and take back the other sanctions relief that Tehran received for complying with the nuclear treaty because of its recent ballistic missile tests.
However, an Obama administration official reiterated Thursday that the two issues are separate and underscored the new actions Washington took against Tehran for those provocations.
The news about lifting the financial sanction comes on the heels of a major speech by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, in which he warned subsequent administrations against imposing too many financial sanctions.
