Foundation of Defense of Democracies
By: Jonathan Schanzer, Mark Dubowitz
The United States has blocked Iran from easily accessing greenbacks as a means to slow down the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. But those financial sanctions only go so far. With Iranian nuclear physics still outpacing Western economic pressure, Washington is looking to prevent the mullahs from accessing their second favorite currency: the euro.
The key to the U.S. strategy is Target2, or the Trans-European Automated Real-Time Gross Settlement Express Transfer system. As the European Central Bank’s proprietary electronic interbank payment system, it’s the euro-zone equivalent of the U.S. Fedwire.
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/targeting-tehrans-euros/
