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Prevention of Nuclear Proliferation

I will outline some of the action taken by several countries to exert pressure on the Iranian regime and to ensure that targeted action is taken to prevent the development of nuclear technology. I shall address some of those issues later. The case for UK action is also underlined by the recent calls from the Financial Action Task Force for countries to apply effective counter-measures to protect their financial sectors from money laundering and financing-of-terrorism risks emanating from Iran. Those calls were renewed with urgency on 28 October 2011 and noted the taskforce's particular and exceptional concern about Iran's failure to address the risk of terrorist financing. It also flagged up its concerns about the serious threat that this posed to the integrity of the international financial system. The taskforce has not expressed such serious and ongoing concerns about any other country. The UK is leading action against Iran because Iran's proliferation-sensitive activities pose an ongoing concern for the UK and the international community as a whole. The measure that we have imposed is strong but necessary, and we encourage other countries to take similar tough action. The UK is an important global financial centre, so UK restrictions will have a significant impact on the options available to Iranian banks. That will make it more difficult for Iranian banks to use the international financial system in support of proliferation-sensitive activities and protect the integrity of the UK financial sector. Other countries share our and the taskforce's concern about Iran's nuclear activities.