Azernews.Az

Saderat Bank of Iran has been excluded from EU sanctions against the country's financial system, IRNA news agency reported, citing the bank's press service.

A European court has voted for the bank's call for annulling the EU's ban.

Earlier the EU's General Court annulled the asset freeze imposed on the Mellat Bank, which had been designated by the EU Council in July 2010 on the alleged charge of engaging in a pattern of conduct which supports Iran's nuclear program, Mehr news agency reported.

The EU imposed the sanctions on Mellat Bank for uncertain reasons, and it took two and half year for the Bank to get the Court's positive decision, according to the bank's managing director Ali Divandari.

At the beginning of 2012, the U.S. and its European allies imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

On October 15, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on imposing another round of sanctions on Iran.

The embargoes followed suspicions that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, which Tehran has strongly rejected.

Iran argues that as a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.