Efforts Underway to Unblock Iranian Accounts in Georgia

Efforts are underway to unblock some bank accounts belonging to Iranian nationals recently frozen by the Georgian government, the head of Iran-Georgia Chamber of Commerce said. “We raised the issue with them but they responded vaguely … We asked the Iranian Embassy in Georgia to pursue the issue and keep us posted,” Mehr News Agency also quoted Fatemeh Moqimi as saying on Monday. She attributed the move to the Eurasian country’s toughened immigration policies and, partly to, heightened pressure from the US sanctions against Iran. Georgia’s CBT Bank recently issued a directive banning any banking services to Iranians lacking a resident’s card. Georgia is tightening its immigration law, under which permanent residency would only be issued to foreign nationals residing in the country for at least 10 years.