On Wednesday morning, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), led by Senator Rob Portman, released a majority report reviewing the Obama administration's communications and financial maneuverings with Iranian officials at the time of the Iran nuclear deal. The report, “Review of U.S. Treasury Department's License to Convert Iranian Assets Using the U.S. Financial System,” reveals in fuller detail the duplicitous ways in which Obama administration sold the agreement.
As part of the Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), according to the testimony of several Obama-era officials including its Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Iran was to be denied access to the U.S. dollar and the U.S. banking system. The administration's message was clear, both before and after the deal's signing: Iran would not be given access to the U.S. financial system. Yet the administration circumvented its own stated policy.
On February 24, 2016, the report reveals, the Treasury Department issued a license permitting Iran to convert $5.7 billion it held in Oman from Omani rials to U.S. dollars and then into euros. This would have directly violated the sanctions law then in place as well as the terms of the JCPOA. The only reason the transaction never took place is that American banks, despite pressure from the Obama administration, refused to go along, citing “compliance, reputational, and legal risks.” To put it plainly: Obama officials asked U.S. banks to break the law, and the banks said no.
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