UK severs banking ties with Iran, US and Canada to follow
21 Nov 2011
The UK has imposed new sanctions against Iran, cutting off all financial ties with Iranian banks. The move is aimed at curbing Iranian banks' funding of the country's nuclear weapons programme, Chancellor George Osborne said.
"We are doing this to improve the national security of the United Kingdom," Osborne said.
All UK credit and financial institutions are required to cease all transactions with Iranian banks, including the Central Bank of Iran, from 1500 GMT today.
The new measures come in the wake of the International Atomic Energy Agency's report on Iran and concerns about its nuclear programme, official sources said.
This is the first time the UK has used powers created under the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act to cut off a country's banking sector in this way.
"We have ceased all contact between the UK's financial system and the Iranian financial system,'' Osborne said.
