First Secondary Sanctions Applied: US Blocks Egyptian Bank From Accessing Dollars Over ‘Iran Ties’

The US Treasury Department on Friday unveiled its first ‘secondary’ Iran sanctions related to Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’ against Iran, on Friday naming an Egyptian bank in the UAE. Ironically both of these latter countries are close American allies, and this comes at a moment the White House has failed to confirm whether the US will actually go after China for the same trade violations. The UAE branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr are being newly sanctioned over their business dealings with Iran, cutting off the branches’ access to US financial institutions and forbidding transactions in US dollar. “Treasury promised to sever…