No U.S. Financing for Iran Act of 2022

In an April 2016 forum at the Council on Foreign Relations, then-Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew stated that, under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the United States committed to lifting its nuclear sanctions, “but the U.S. financial system is not open to Iran, and that is not something that is going to change”.

In September 2016, however, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued licenses authorizing United States financial institutions “to engage in all transactions necessary to provide financing or other financial services” in order to effectuate the sale of aircraft to flagship state-owned carrier Iran Air. The Department had sanctioned Iran Air in 2011 for its use of commercial passenger aircraft to transport rockets, missiles, and other military cargo on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, both of which had been sanctioned under Executive Order No. 13382 for weapons proliferation-related activities. In October 2017, the IRGC went on to be designated under Executive Order No. 13224 for its support of the IRGC–Qods Force, which has provided support to terrorist groups such as Hizballah, Hamas, and the Taliban. Iran Air had also delivered missile or rocket components to the Assad government in Syria, which like Iran is classified as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Iran remains classified by the Department of the Treasury as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. In 2019, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule “to prohibit the opening or maintaining of correspondent accounts in the United States for, or on behalf of, Iranian financial institutions, and the use of foreign financial institutions’ correspondent accounts at covered U.S. financial institutions to process transactions involving Iranian financial institutions”. This measure, according to FinCEN, was related to important United States policy goals, “namely to deny the Iranian regime resources to support terrorism, develop nuclear weapons and/or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, advance its ballistic missile program, oppress the Iranian people, and fuel conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere”. At the time this measure was imposed, FinCEN stated that it “will further protect the U.S. financial system from Iran by ensuring that U.S. financial institutions are not exposed to Iran’s ongoing illicit finance activities, including its support for international terrorism”.

In February 2020, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) determined that Iran had not completed its action plan to address strategic deficiencies in countering money laundering, terrorist financing, and weapons proliferation. The FATF therefore returned Iran to its “black list” and renewed its call for countries to apply countermeasures against Iran in order to protect the international financial system.

oppose the provision of financial assistance by the Fund to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the allocation to the Government of Iran of Special Drawing Rights; and

seek to ensure that member countries of the Fund prohibit the exchange of Special Drawing Rights held by the Government of Iran.

the date that is 30 days after the date the President of the United States certifies to the Congress that the Government of Iran—

the date that is 30 days after the date that the Secretary of the Treasury reports to the Congress that terminating the provisions of this Act is necessary to permit the United States to comply with a treaty ratified by the United States; or

10 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.