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DUBAI — Most banks in the United Arab Emirates, an important trading partner for Iran, have stopped money transfers there after the latest round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, bankers said on Sunday.
A Dubai-based Iranian businessman said that the latest sanctions have halved trade with Dubai, an important re-export centre for Iranian goods.
"We stopped transfers to Iran in all currencies in July," an executive from an international bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on June 9 over Iran's controversial programme of uranium enrichment, which many Western states believe may be a covert bid to make a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran denies.
The United States and European Union have since unilaterally imposed even tougher punitive measures, which contain provisions to penalise Tehran's trading partners.
A banker with an Emirati bank said that transfers to Iran in dollars and euros are now forbidden, and have become "very difficult, if not impossible, in dirhams," the UAE's currency.
"Transactions by Iranian clients are closely monitored," the banker said, adding that certain activities by Iranian clients, such as transfers to Asia to purchase goods, are sometimes blocked.