![\"mark-kirk-marco-rubio\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/03\/mark-kirk-marco-rubio.png\" "\\"mark-kirk-marco-rubio\\"")
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Two U.S. Republican senators want the Obama administration to promise to keep in place restrictions on Iran’s regime using the dollar amid reports that some restrictions could be lifted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew after officials told The Associated Press they were considering allowing some offshore banks to use dollars to do currency trades for financial transactions with Iranian businesses, The Hill reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“Any such efforts would benefit Iran\u2019s financiers of international terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile threats,” the senators wrote. “We believe the United States should instead increase pressure on the Iranian regime in order to hold it fully accountable for its threatening and destabilizing activities outside of the nuclear realm.”
The two senators have been vocal critics of the Obama administration’s Iran policy, including its response to a series of ballistic missile tests and the separate nuclear agreement.
Officials told the AP that no decision was finalized and any loosening of the current prohibition would come with several restrictions, including that Iranian banks could not be directly involved.
Sens. Kirk and Rubio, however, said the reports had them “gravely alarmed.”
They want Lew to promise that they won’t allow Iran’s regime to benefit from U.S. dollars, including through “U-turn transactions” or international financial systems.
“Such actions would fundamentally undermine our nation\u2019s own reputation as a global leader on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, and also provide Iran legitimacy in the international financial system that it has not earned,” they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two U.S. Republican senators want the Obama administration to promise to keep in place restrictions on Iran’s regime using the dollar amid reports that some restrictions could be lifted. Republican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":45575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-20096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran-a-world","8":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n