Under mounting pressure from the U.S. and its allies, two Spanish banks have frozen the bank account of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s embassy in Madrid.

Banco Santander has recently notified the Iranian embassy officials to withdraw the embassy’s money from the bank within maximum one month. Following the withdrawal of the money, the embassy’s account was blocked, IRNA reported.
The Iranian embassy officials then went ahead to open a new account with a branch of la Caixa.
However, la Caixa also stopped all the banking transactions with the embassy’s account last Friday and finally froze it on Monday.
The freezing of the embassy’s accounts has caused many problems for the Iranians and other foreign nationals.
The two banks’ officials have announced that they took the actions due to the sanctions imposed against Iran and under pressure from the United States.
The banks have so far not frozen the Iranians’ personal accounts, including the Madrid embassy staffs.
However, they have made the opening of any new account for Iranians contingent upon the authorization of the country’s High Banking Council and, eventually, all such requests are rejected.
Meanwhile, an Iranian economic body comprised of the officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance and the Chamber of Commerce arrived at Madrid on Monday to meet with the Spanish officials.
Some of the Iranians who have been affected by the recent Spanish banks’ move have called on Tehran to take retaliatory actions against the Spanish embassy and other institutes in Iran.
(source: Press TV)