Financial Network Under Fire For Iran Ties

(NewsCore) - The global institution charged with facilitating international financial transactions was embroiled in controversy Thursday over its relationship with Iranian banks.

The US Senate Banking Committee passed a bill Thursday that, if passed into law, would authorize the Treasury Department to sanction Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) if it does not sever its ties with Iran.

SWIFT, based in Belgium, provides the global network through which financial institutions transfer money to each other.

The bill also aims to further squeeze Iran's energy, shipping, and mining industries to deter Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"This legislation is a logical next step in our sanctions regime and our efforts to stymie the regime's flow of dollars into its nuclear fund," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement Thursday.

The move by the committee comes after a week of calls by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a nonpartisan foreign policy advocacy group, for SWIFT to terminate its work with Iran.

UANI contends that SWIFT violates EU and US sanctions by granting Iran access to its financial-messaging network.

On Monday, UANI President Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, sent SWIFT's leadership, international banking and regulatory officials, and US lawmakers a letter detailing SWIFT's violations of US and EU sanctions against Iran.

"Unfortunately, the global SWIFT system is used by Iran to finance its nuclear weapons program, to finance terrorist activities and to provide the financial support necessary to brutally repress its own people," Wallace wrote.

SWIFT said Thursday that it has not violated any laws by allowing Iran access to its network.

"There should be no misunderstanding -- SWIFT complies fully with all applicable sanctions laws of the multiple jurisdictions in which we operate and we will continue to do so," SWIFT said in a statement. "Indeed, SWIFT has been a vital instrument in the global battle against terrorist financing, cooperating with relevant enforcement agencies in the United States and the European Union."

Wallace quickly shot back Thursday, calling SWIFT's statement a "cryptic and unsupported defense."

"Just after SWIFT issued a tepid and vague statement trying to defend its work, the US Senate Banking Committee unanimously affirmed that SWIFT is indeed in violation of Iran sanctions," UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton told NewsCore. "SWIFT needs to do what's right, and stop providing the Iranian regime with access to the international financial system."

Wallace called for the swift passage of the Banking Committee's bill.

"By quickly passing this legislation, the Senate can send a clear message to the Iranian regime, SWIFT, and every international institution -- Iran is closed for business," Wallace said.

UANI was founded in 2008 by Wallace, the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and Middle East expert Dennis Ross.