VIENNA  (Reuters) - Toughening financial sanctions on Iran are making it difficult for Sweden to pay pensions to people with dual citizenship who have retired in the Islamic Republic, the Nordic nation's foreign minister said on Friday.

 

Carl Bildt's comments were the latest indication of how punitive steps by the West agians Iran can have an impact on ordinary people, in this case Iranians who also have Swedish citizenship.

 

Tens of thousands of people of Iranian descent live in Sweden.

 

After retiring, those who moved back may now have problems collecting their Swedish pensions, which could amount to a substantial sum of money in Iran.

 

"We are having difficulties to manage pension payments to Swedish citizens who live in Iran and that is not really good," Bildt told Reuters during a visit to Vienna, adding it was not a question of a large number of people.

 

He did not give details, but appeared to refer to growing problems in transferring money to and from Iran, one of the world's largest oil producers.

 

Bildt said U.S. measures were having the biggest impact, suggesting the 27-nation EU had tried to avoid designing sanctions in a way that would have excessively "dramatic effects" on individuals.