Bush has yet to achieve a breakthrough with his policy on nuclear enrichment in Iran
Washington, 2008 Nov 7, Press TV
The Bush administration has barred American financial institutions from routing money transfers to the US on behalf of Iranian banks.
"This regulatory action will close the last general entry point for Iran to the US financial system," said the Treasury Department in a Thursday statement.
Prior to the introduction of the new sanctions, Iranian banks and customers could transact with US financial institutions when the money transfer was conducted indirectly by an offshore bank that was neither Iranian nor American.
"Given Iran's conduct, it is necessary to close even this indirect access," Associated Press quoted Stuart Levey, the department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, as saying.
The move is the latest punitive measure adopted by US President George W. Bush to stymie Iranian efforts to continue its uranium enrichment.
The Bush administration and its allies in Tel Aviv have long accused Tehran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of seeking atomic weaponry.
Washington has sought to persuade Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities through a series of incentives and sanctions, as well as threats of launching strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran insists that its enrichment program is solely directed at the civilian applications of the technology.
The UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, charged with inspecting Iranian facilities, says it is not in a position to fully clarify the nature of the Iranian program. The agency, however, said in its latest Iran report that it could not find any 'components of a nuclear weapon' or 'related nuclear physics studies' in the country.
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