Iran seeks to withdraw $353m from Germany

German authorities are considering a request by Iran to withdraw €300 million ($353 million) from bank accounts held in Germany and transfer the cash to Iran, Bild newspaper reported yesterday, citing unnamed government officials.

Tehran is seeking withdraw the funds from the Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (eihbank) because it is worried that it could run out of cash when fresh US sanctions against its financial sector take effect, Bild said.

Washington has announced new sanctions on Iran and ordered all countries to stop buying Iranian oil by November and foreign firms to stop doing business there or face US blacklists.

One of the world’s biggest shipping lines, France’s CMA CGM, announced on Saturday it was pulling out of Iran for fear of becoming entangled in US sanctions after American President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear agreement in May.

Read: No illusions as Iran nuclear deal countries look to future without US

Iran told the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) it needed the cash from the accounts “to pass on to Iranian citizens who require cash while travelling abroad, given their inability to access recognised credit cards,” Bild said.

BaFin was now reviewing the request, which had been briefed to senior officials in the chancellery, foreign ministry and finance ministry, the newspaper reported.

The finance ministry had no immediate comment. The Bundesbank, BaFin and the foreign ministry declined to comment. A spokeswoman for eihbank declined to comment, citing bank secrecy laws.

Foreign ministers from the five remaining signatory countries to the nuclear deal – Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia – offered a package of economic measures to Iran on Friday but Tehran said they did not go far enough.

Read: No compromise in sight on Iran nuclear deal, Germany says