No foreign investment flowing into Iran

They call themselves the leaders of Iranian people!!

When Iran and global powers signed a nuclear deal last year, supporters and detractors agreed on one thing: the accord would get billions of investment dollars flowing into the the so called Islamic Republic. The only question was how much,Bloomberg said
The answer so far -- 'not much' -- is infuriating Iranian officials, who are demanding more U.S. concessions, including access to dollar-denominated trades, after curbing their nuclear program. In the U.S., opponents of the original agreement are warning against any further easing of restrictions, vowing to hold up Treasury Department nominees to ensure it doesn’t happen.
“The deal was so contentious for both parties that the acrimony after the implementation is to be expected,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. “There are active detractors that are trying to collapse the deal.”
$55 Billion
The U.S. estimates that $3 billion of $55 billion in frozen assets that are supposed to be released to Iran has made it back to Tehran so far. Iranian officials -- who say they need the money to buy airliners, improve infrastructure and boost a struggling economy -- say European and Asian banks are reluctant to deal with them because they fear U.S. sanctions.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Banking Committee are discussing the Iran deal, completed last July, in separate hearings Wednesday. Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin, whose Senate confirmation to the post has been held up for more than a year, is testifying before both committees.
 ‘Illicit Conduct’
However, some Iranian entities, including about 200 individuals and companies associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards,(IRGC),  are still off-limits under remaining U.S. sanctions that punish Iran for its support for terrorism, launching and testing ballistic missiles and human-rights abuses. The U.S. also maintains a prohibition on Iran accessing the U.S. financial system, including conducting transactions in U.S. dollars.
 “The Iranians thought they’d get more help from the banks,” said Matthew Levitt, a former deputy assistant secretary of Treasury. “As long as they engage in illicit conduct, they’re going to find banks not willing to engage with them.”
Worried that the Obama administration’s efforts will go too far, Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk warned Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew in a May 19 letter that they will hold up Treasury Department nominees until they receive assurances that “the U.S. will not enable Iranian access to U.S. dollars elsewhere in the international financial system, including assisting Iran in gaining access to dollar payment systems outside the U.S. financial system.”
Banking Fines
Major non-U.S. banks remain wary after paying $15 billion in fines and signing settlements for violating earlier U.S. sanctions. French bank BNP Paribas SA agreed to pay $8.9 billion in July 2014 for violating U.S. sanctions against Sudan, Cuba and Iran. Germany’s Commerzbank AG agreed to pay $1.45 billion for moving funds through the U.S. financial system for Sudan and Iran.
That history makes doing business with Iran a hard sell, despite U.S. assurances.
“Promotion of banking and commercial activity in that environment is completely anathema to the message the U.S. government has been sending internationally for last 15 years,” said Juan Zarate, chairman of the Financial Integrity Network who was a White House adviser on combating terrorism under President George W. Bush.
While attacking critics of the Iran deal for having overestimated how much money would flow to the Islamic Republic, the Obama administration has also said that Iran’s behavior may be stifling investment.
Hezbollah Support
“If you were routinely testing ballistic missiles that violate the United Nations ’ sanctions that govern your ballistic missile program, well, that’s not going to inspire the confidence of business leaders that this is a safe place to do business,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters May 12. “If you are supporting terrorism around the world, that’s not going to be particularly persuasive to business leaders that Iran is a good place to make an investment.”
Iran continues to provide financial and military support for the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. The Treasury Department is trying to cut off funding to the group, whose soldiers are in Syria defending President Bashar al-Assad against U.S.-backed rebels.
“We are taking action to keep Hezbollah out of the U.S. financial system,” said Daniel Glaser, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing. “We want to disrupt Hezbollah’s use of the international financial system and stop their access to our financial system.”
The Financial Action Task Force, a 34-government agency sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, has also cited Iran for flouting efforts to stop money laundering and terrorism finance. The only other country on the list: North Korea.
To really draw investment, Iran needs to embrace wholesale economic and political reform, said Suzanne Maloney, a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution.
“Tehran’s challenges in luring capital is further complicated by its reputation for provocative domestic and regional behavior,” Maloney wrote in a May 20 report. “As the old adage goes, capital is a coward. And the Islamic Republic is a haunted house.”