Iran withdraws $75bn from Europe
Pastor Dale Morgan
Iran withdraws $75bn from Europe*
From correspondents in Tehran
June 16, 2008 07:00pm
Article from: Reuters
IRAN has withdrawn about $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets
from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed
nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.
"Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and
shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen
Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was
quoted as saying.
Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the
report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify
the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"About $US75 billion of Iran's foreign assets which were under threat of
being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the
weekly said.
Iran's Etemad-e Melli newspaper, also quoting MrTalaie, last week also
reported that the world's fourth-largest oil exporter was withdrawing
assets from European banks but did not give any figures.