January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

MANAMA, Jan 16: Bahrain’s largest lender by market value, Ahli United Bank, has suspended business with Iran, complying with US pressure to isolate Tehran over its nuclear activities, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Two sources with knowledge of policy at Ahli United said banking activity with Iran had been “frozen”. The sources declined to comment on how this would affect the bank’s affiliate Future Bank, set up in 2004 with two Iranian partners.

A member of the Bahrain parliament’s finance and economic committee, Jasim Ali, said this week the government was putting pressure on Ahli United to freeze its Iranian operations.

Future Bank was established as a joint venture with Bank Saderat Iran and Bank Melli Iran.

The bank’s main business is wholesale investment banking, and it targets financial flows between Iran and the Gulf. The bank aims to channel debt and equity capital from the Gulf into Iran, Future Bank’s Web site said.

The United States, which counts Bahrain as an ally and has a naval base on the island, is putting pressure on Gulf governments to isolate Iran, which it says is trying to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge.

A US intelligence report in December said Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Iran says it is developing nuclear technology for energy purposes.

Banks in the United Arab Emirates, the second-largest Arab economy, have stopped issuing letters of credit to Iranian companies, bankers said.

Increasingly isolated from the West, Iran has long had close economic ties with most Gulf states, especially the UAE and Bahrain, home to the Middle East’s biggest financial centres.—Reuters