The GOP Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, has reiterated the party’s anti-Iran stance, calling on the Obama administration to block Tehran from any access to the US financial system or dollar.
Tehran has already called on the US and the European Union to grant it access based on the nuclear deal reached with world powers in July last year.
However, the Republicans who oppose the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action have spared no efforts not to let that happen.
The latest attempt was by Ryan, who recently visited Israel in a Middle East tour.
Ryan urged President Barack Obama Monday not to help Tehran “get richer” due to its ballistic missile tests as well as what he called “human rights violations and support for terrorism."
Ryan said Obama should "definitively" rule out "at least four workarounds" that would allow Iran to gain access to the financial system.
Although the White House has previously said it will not grant Iran such an access, the GOPer said, “The administration has sent vague, mixed signals on what it will do next. Our concern is that there are at least four workarounds to provide Iran with access to the dollar, including dollar-denominated transactions, dollar-clearing, dollar-based conversions, and dollar-related foreign currency transactions.”
The speaker’s statement came ahead of a planned meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his American counterpart, John Kerry, in New York Tuesday.
The high-ranking officials have the issue on their agenda, according to US officials.
Despite the nuclear deal between the P5+1 -- the US, Russia, Britain, China, Germany, as well as France -- and Iran, US foreign banks are currently prohibited from clearing dollar-based transactions with Tehran through American banks.
"The secretary is very mindful that topic will come up, that that is very much on Foreign Minister Zarif's mind," US State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing. "The secretary will be ready to talk to them about it."
Kirby also said that Kerry would ask Iran to play a “more helpful” role in tackling the crisis that has gripped Syria since 2011.
"The secretary intends to raise ... ways in which Iran can get more helpful going forward in a political process," said Kirby, adding: "We want them to use that influence in a constructive manner, towards a political solution."
The Iranian minister left Tehran for New York early Monday to attend an event to sign the Paris Agreement on climate change, dubbed COP21.
After Iran and the six world powers started to implement the JCPOA on January 16, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US were lifted. Iran, in return, has put some limitations on its nuclear activities.
Some US and European businesses are still reluctant to do business with Iran for fear of getting tangled in a thicket of US regulations months after sanctions were lifted.
By Press TV