London lifts sanctions on Iranian entities, businessman
By Sara Rajabova
As the six world powers and Iran are still engaged in intensive nuclear talks, the British government has decided to lift the sanctions on several Iranian businessmen after the European Union Court's decision.
The British Treasury has announced the lifting sanctions on frozen assets of five Iranian entities and an Iranian businessman, Press TV reported.
The announcement came after the General Court of the European Union annulled the sanctions against Iranian businessman and five firms, namely, Sorinet Commercial Trust (SCT), Sharif University of Technology, National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), Moallem Insurance Company (MIC) and Sina Bank.
The rulings on the businessman, Sorinet Commercial Trust, Sharif University of Technology, and the NITC were passed on July 3, 2014. The verdict on Moallem Insurance Company was handed down on July 10, 2014, while the decision on Sina Bank was issued on June 4, 2014. Since the judgments were not appealed within the designated two months, they have now come into effect.
The new developments come as Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, China, France, Britain and the U.S. - plus Germany held their latest round of talks in New York on September 18-26 to work out a final agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over Tehran's civilian nuclear energy program before a November 24 deadline.
Last November, Iran and the P5+1 clinched an interim nuclear accord, which took effect on January 20 and expired six months later. However, they agreed to extend their talks until November 24 as they remained divided on a number of key issues.
In last September, the European Union Court has lifted sanctions on Iran's Central Bank. The Court of Justice lifted the sanctions because of lack of evidence on banks involvement in the financing of any programs to develop nuclear weapons.
It is reported that the decision to freeze the assets of the Bank, issued in January 2012, was based on "confidential evidence from an unnamed EU member state against which Tehran could not put forward the evidence in his own defense."
The U.S and EU imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors at the beginning of 2012 under the pretext of potential deviation toward non-civilian purposes in Iran's nuclear energy program. Iran has repeatedly denied the Western allegations against its nuclear energy program.
The sanctions are aimed to prevent other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. At the end of 2012, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.