Bank Melli denies pulling assets out of Europe

TRANSFER DENIED: Bank Melli has not pulled its assets out of Europe despite fresh EU sanctions against the Iranian lender. (Getty Images)

Iran's Bank Melli has not transferred assets from its European branches despite fresh EU sanctions banning its operations, the bank's managing director was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"Bank Melli assets in European countries have not changed and they have not been transferred," Ali Sedghi told the Mehr news agency.

But he confirmed that the bank's affected branches abroad had stopped operating but were still continuing "internal work".

"Bank Melli has some assets abroad which are circulating under licence in those countries and they have to remain there as there are some debts," he explained.

Sedghi added that the bank's branch in the United Arab Emirates was carrying out its "everyday activities".

The bank, Iran's largest, was the target of new European Union sanctions last month over Tehran's nuclear defiance. The EU has banned the operations of Bank Melli branches in Hamburg and Paris and fully-owned subsidiaries in London, as well as all dealings with European countries from subsidiaries in Moscow.

The EU move, running alongside a string of UN sanctions against Iran adopted since 2006, aims at persuading Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment activities, which the West fears could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

The state-owned bank was already hit by US sanctions against Iranian institutions on the grounds that it provided banking services to the nuclear drive and the elite Revolutionary Guards.

Tehran insists it wants nuclear energy only for a growing population whose fossil fuels will eventually run out and rejects calls to suspend the sensitive nuclear work.

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