Turkey revokes Iran’s Bank Mellat licence

Ankara: Turkey has revoked the licence of Iran's Bank Mellat, a semi-private financial entity that has been subject to Western sanctions for years, the official gazette said early on Saturday. 

The decision was announced some two weeks after Washington slapped sanctions on a Turkish bank over alleged ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) although it was not immediately clear whether the two issues were related.

The move follows a decision by Turkey's banking regulator over the Tehran-based bank, which provides financial support to Iran's government and is subject to US, EU and UK sanctions, according to OpenSanctions, an open-source database of information on sanctions-hit entities.

The Iranian government is also the largest shareholder of the bank, it said. 

In revoking Bank Mellat's licence, the Turkish regulator cited article 71b of the banking law, which says the entity's "continued operation poses a threat to the rights of depositors and participation fund holders and to the security and stability of the financial system".

Bank Mellat has been subjected to Western sanctions for years over accusations Tehran was pursuing an atomic weapon under the cover of a civil nuclear programme.

Those sanctions were lifted as part of a landmark 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers to curb its nuclear ambitions. 

But the US unilaterally pulled out of the deal in May 2018, reimposing biting economic sanctions on Iran.

Bank Mellat was also hit by US and Gulf sanctions in 2019 after being named as one of 25 entities linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. 

On September 4, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Turkey's Golden Global Bank over its alleged ties to the Revolutionary Guards as it sought to step up financial pressure on Iran. 

The Turkish investment bank denied the accusations.