US Treasury official 'explains' Iran sanctions to Lebanon

BEIRUT - AFP - A senior US Treasury official on Wednesday concluded two days of talks in Lebanon with financial leaders and bankers on US and UN sanctions slapped on Iran, the US embassy said.

Stuart Levey, the undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, met officials including Finance Minister Raya al-Hassan, central bank governor Riad Salame as well as several bankers.

"This visit was to explain how our sanctions process work," a source at the US embassy said on condition of anonymity.

The source did not give further details on the talks.

The official National News Agency said Levey left for Bahrain at the end of his Beirut visit, which followed a similar trip to the United Arab Emirates Sunday and Monday.

The UN Security Council hit Tehran with a fourth set of military and financial sanctions on June 9 in a bid to rein in Tehran's suspect nuclear programme.

The United States and European Union followed up with tougher punitive measures targeting Iran's banking and energy sectors, which contain provisions to penalise Tehran's trading partners.

Lebanon, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, had abstained from the June 9 vote.

Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme.

Iran says it is enriching uranium to 20 percent to produce fuel for a research reactor in Tehran and that is nuclear drive is entirely peaceful.