UAE aims to strike balance on Iran sanctions
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A top official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said the Gulf nation will strike a balance between implementing the UN sanctions over the Iranian nuclear program and handling "legitimate transactions," a local English daily reported Tuesday.
"There are a lot of legitimate transactions taking place and I think it is extremely important to have that balance right, between our international commitments on the one hand and also between the fact that a lot of the transactions that we do have are legitimate," Anwar Mohammad Gargash, the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs, was quoted by Gulf News as saying in a statement.
He said the UAE government is discussing its approach to UN sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program.
Gargash's remarks came after Stuart Levey, undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence of the U.S. Treasury Department, held discussions in Abu Dhabi on how the UAE and other Gulf Arab nations can help to implement fresh sanctions imposed on Iran, the newspaper said.
"It was not an emergency visit. It was a visit which was scheduled several weeks ago to discuss the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and the UAE and the UN embargo on Iran," a source of the UAE Foreign Ministry told the paper.
Levey is also expected to visit Bahrain and Lebanon this week, according to Gulf News.
On June 9, the UN Security Council voted for a fourth round of sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear program, which West nations fears could lead to nuclear weapons.
Later in that month, the UAE Central Bank told companies in the country to freeze bank accounts of 41 companies and individuals in line with the new sanctions. The Dubai Financial Services Authority also warned companies based in Dubai's free zone to conduct risk assessment when dealing with banks and other clients domiciled in Iran.
According to figures released by the UAE's National Bureau of Statistics in July, Iran remained the largest market for re- exported products from the country, mostly from Dubai, with a value of around 25.9 billion dirhams (about 7.05 billion dollars) last year.
