Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), along with Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Rick Scott (R-Florida), and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) today sent a letter to President Trump urging him to impose sanctions on the entirety of Iran's financial sector pursuant to Executive Order 13902, which was signed earlier this year. The executive order provides the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to impose sanctions on additional sectors of the Iranian economy at any time.
The letter applauds the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on Iran, and urges them to do more to pressure the regime and force it to return to the negotiating table on U.S. terms. The letter reads, in part;
"Despite these efforts, at least 14 Iranian banks remain open and connected to the SWIFT financial messaging network for sanctions-free financial transactions, providing the regime a crucial economic lifeline. This is despite the fact that most other Iranian financial institutions are under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury for their financial sponsorship of terrorism - including the Central Bank of Iran, which capitalizes these remaining banks and may be using them as fronts for its activities. Should these 14 remaining banks be targeted for U.S. sanctions, Iran would be cut off from the global financial system entirely, and the regime's ability to fund its malign regional influence would be even further diminished."
The full text of the letter can be found by clicking here.
