US Grants Broad Sanctions Exemption for Iran Quake Aid

NY Times - The United States cleared the way on Tuesday for American charities to expedite relief to the victims of the double earthquake that struck Iran more than two weeks ago, issuing the charities a temporary but broad exemption to the regimen of economic sanctions imposed on that country over its disputed nuclear energy program.

The exemption, announced by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees the sanctions, authorizes charities “to collect funds to be used in direct support of humanitarian relief and reconstruction activities in response to the earthquake.” The exemption, which expires on Oct. 5, permits the charities to transfer up to $300,000 each to relief and rebuilding efforts, bypassing the restrictions on financial transactions that are enforced under the sanctions.

Advocacy groups in the United States had been pressing for such an exemption, arguing that it was necessary to secure the cooperation of banks and other financial institutions. Many have been reluctant to engage in money transfers to Iran for fear of violating the sanctions rules.

“This humanitarian gesture will empower the American people to help Iranians who’ve lost everything to this terrible natural disaster,” David Elliot, assistant policy director at the National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based group that represents Americans of Iranian descent, said on the group’s Web site. “The White House should be commended for ensuring that emergency relief efforts won’t be held hostage to the bad relations between the two countries.”

The Bush administration issued a similar exemption, known as a general license, for charities who aided victims of the earthquake in Iran’s southern city of Bam on 2003, which left 25,000 people dead.¶More than 300 people were killed and thousands left homeless in the two Aug. 11 earthquakes, which struck a Turkish-speaking area in northern Iran. Senior officials in the Iranian government, which has faced some domestic criticism over its uneven response to the quake, have said they would accept foreign assistance. But the government has declined to accept a direct offer of help from the Obama administration, which characterized that decision as disappointing in a post on the official White House blog by Denis McDonough, the deputy national security adviser.