The United States Treasury Department has assured Brazilian banks of financing trade with Tehran in the wake of a nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers, says the South American country’s top diplomat for trade.
Last week, officials with the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) explained to executives of Brazil’s largest banks in Sao Paulo that they could do business with Iranian banks as long as transactions do not go through the US banking system and do not involve sanctioned entities, Reuters quoted Rodrigo Azeredo as saying on Wednesday.
After the implementation of the deal between Iran and the P5+1–the US, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and France—in January, the banks were allowed to deal with Iran but remained anxious of facing repercussions from the West.
“They feared US. and European banks could react by cancelling their credit lines,” Azeredo said.
“The potential for trade with Iran is great, but we need the…