Sanctions uncertainty hinders investor return to Iran

AFP, PARIS:  Iran may technically be open to foreign investors after a nuclear deal with Western powers, but many sanctions remain, deterring potential business partners who fear the US could hit them again with punishing fines.
In January, the United States and other Western powers lifted sanctions related to Tehran’s nuclear programme, mostly on oil exports and financial transactions.
But it remains on Washington’s sanctions list in other areas, notably for allegedly supporting terrorism and its human rights record.
“Iran sanctions are still very much alive,” Farhad Alavi, a US-based lawyer specialising in sanctions application, told AFP.
This echoes remarks by John Smith, acting director of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to a congressional panel in February that “broadly, the US primary embargo on Iran is still in place”.

Sanctions uncertainty hinders investor return to Iran

AFP, PARIS: Iran may technically be open to foreign investors after a nuclear deal with Western powers, but many sanctions remain, deterring potential business partners who fear the US could hit them again with punishing fines. In January, the United States and other Western powers lifted sanctions related to Tehrans nuclear programme, mostly on oil exports and financial transactions. But it remains on Washingtons sanctions list in other areas, notably for allegedly supporting terrorism and its human rights record. Iran sanctions are still very much alive, Farhad Alavi, a US-based lawyer specialising in sanctions application, told AFP. This echoes remarks by John Smith, acting director of the US Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), to a congressional panel in February that broadly, the US primary embargo on Iran is still in place.