US officials to discuss tightening Iran sanctions compliance on UAE trip

The United States will send a senior government delegation to the United Arab Emirates next week to meet with banks over concerns about Iran sanctions compliance, a State Department spokesperson said on Thursday, as nuclear talks with Iran stall.

The move suggests Washington is looking to crank up economic pressure on Tehran amid Western doubts about Tehran’s determination to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord, Reuters reports.

It also comes as the UAE, a US ally, works to improve ties with neighbour, Iran, in a bid to contain regional tensions.

READ: UAE delegation visits Turkey to discuss defence cooperation

The US delegation, which will include the head of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Andrea Gacki, will warn banks in the UAE that have business with Iran and are not in compliance with the sanctions.

A State Department spokesperson said the United States had evidence of non-compliance, and that the banks could later be sanctioned or penalised over their dealings.

UAE authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

While the UAE shares the concerns of Gulf power, Saudi Arabia, over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, missiles programme and regional proxies, Abu Dhabi has intensified its outreach to Tehran and sent a senior official to Iran last Monday.

The UAE, which has business ties to Iran stretching back over a century, had said  in 2018 that it was fully complying with sanctions re-imposed on Iran after then-US president Donald Trump quit the nuclear agreement.

Under the pact, Iran agreed with major powers that it would curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions.

READ: A change in foreign policy is needed for normalisation of Iran-UAE relations

About a year after Washington re-imposed sanctions, Iran started violating the nuclear restrictions. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

Talks are being held in Vienna on reviving the deal, but they have shown little progress.

If there is no progress in these talks, the United States could send delegations to several other countries to tighten the economic pressure on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported.

US and Israeli defence chiefs were expected, on Thursday, to discuss possible military exercises to prepare for a worst-case scenario of destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomacy fails, a senior US. official told Reuters.