UANI Calls on IMF to Cease its Business with Iran's Central Bank

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2012
Contact: Nathan Carleton, [email protected]
Phone: (212) 554-3296

UANI Calls on IMF to Cease its Business with Iran's Central Bank

New York, NY -On Tuesday, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) launched its IMF campaign, calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to either close the accounts it holds with Iran's sanctioned Central Bank, Bank Markazi, or suspend Iran's membership in the IMF.

UANI wrote to the IMF last week, calling on it to reevaluate its ties to Iran and Bank Markazi given recent U.S. and EU sanctions.

In a statement today, UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, said:

The IMF cannot continue to do business with Iran's Central Bank. The IMF faces a legal conundrum with only one resolution: if its only option in Iran is to work with an unscrupulous bank sanctioned by the U.S. and EU, then it should suspend Iran's membership in the IMF. It is no longer business as usual with Iran.

The IMF must also stop treating the Iranian regime like a responsible government in good standing at a time when the international community is trying to isolate it. The IMF should not be hosting Iranian delegations in the U.S. and elsewhere, and Ms. Lagarde should stop lavishing praise on Iran and Bank Markazi.

In reality, Bank Markazi is a notorious financing enterprise the regime uses to fund its illicit nuclear program, the brutal repression of the Iranian people, and terrorist attacks. The Obama administration and Congress have enacted sanctions against Bank Markazi. As such, the administration should not provide U.S.-based multinational organizations with a green-light to do business with it.

On April 26, UANI sent a letter to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. Wrote Ambassador Wallace:

Bank Markazi is a financing enterprise for Iran's illicit nuclear program, its sponsorship of global terror and its brutal repression of the Iranian people. For example, in February of this year, President Obama stated that Bank Markazi engages in "deceptive practices" that make for a "continuing and unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system." The EU Council has officially recognized Bank Markazi's "involvement in activities to circumvent sanctions imposed against Iran."

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Please clarify immediately the nature of the IMF's relationship with Iran and Bank Markazi and please take immediate action to close these accounts, cease your activities with Bank Markazi, and comply with relevant U.S. and EU law.

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... [J]ust this past week, the IMF hosted Iranian delegates at meetings in Washington, D.C. and you met directly with Mahmoud Bahmani, the Governor of Iran's Central Bank. It is clearly inappropriate that you would hold up Iran in public remarks as a model country to be emulated, even in the context of economic issues, at a time that the world is uniting to isolate Iran and Iranian entities such as Iran's Central Bank in response to Iran's irresponsible and illegal activities. It should come as little surprise that Mr. Bahmani used his meeting with you this past weekend as a platform to advance the regime's dangerous political agenda and call for a repeal of sanctions.

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The IMF's activities in and with Iran and its Central Bank are especially inconsistent with the values of American taxpayers who expect that their contributions to international organizations will be deployed in an appropriate manner. As you know, the U.S. contributes 17.69% of the IMF's total current quota of $365 billion. To the extent that you have allocated any of the U.S. government's contribution to fund activities that are unlawful under sanctions law and the IMF's own rules, please return monies to the same amount to the United States.

Click here to read UANI's full letter to IMF.
Click here to send a message to IMF.

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