Treasury targets Egyptian bank in bid to throttle Iran

The Treasury Department on Friday confirmed it would propose a new rule targeting branches of an Egyptian bank based in the United Arab Emirates as part of an effort to choke Iran economically.

Since the start of active hostilities, Washington has sought to ramp up its efforts to isolate Iran economically and force Tehran to the negotiating table. The proposed rule would bar American banks from facilitating transactions linked to the UAE branches of Banque Misr.

"Based on public and non-public information, FinCEN assesses that Banque Misr UAE serves as a critical access node to the U.S. dollar (USD) for Iranian illicit finance, putting U.S. national security at risk and undermining the integrity of the U.S. financial system," the notice from the Treasury read. "Egypt-based Banque Misr, and its branches and operations in countries other than the UAE, are expressly excluded from the definition of “Banque Misr UAE” for the purposes of this NPRM."

“Iran’s enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the U.S. dollar and the global financial system,” Secretary Scott Bessent said, according to Politico. “Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way, and today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime.”

The Iran war began in late February with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Despite a brief ceasefire, negotiations to end the war collapsed and fighting resumed.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.