Iran Accuses Russian Bank of Closing Embassy Accounts

The Iranian ambassador to Moscow on Friday accused a state-run Russian bank of closing Iranian embassy staff accounts to please the United States.

Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, wrote on his blog that the VTB 24 bank had issued orders to embassy staff on Thursday to clear out their accounts on orders from the bank's "top management."

"VTB 24 threw itself on the mercy of the U.S.," he titled the blog post.

"The bank's personnel must take all their money out of their accounts by 18:00 today (Thursday) or their accounts will be closed and the money confiscated!" the Iranian diplomat wrote, adding that his own credit card had been blocked.

"Such behavior by the bank is rude, unprofessional and only characteristic of third world countries -- even British and French banks were not ready to deal with diplomatic personnel from our embassies in this way," he wrote.

The bank however said it had only shut down an embassy salary payroll service on grounds of inefficiency.

"There was a payroll project with the Iranian embassy at the bank, which from the business point of view was ineffective -- there were 35 cards, half of which were not being used, and there were only around 10 real clients," a VTB 24 spokesperson said, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"There shouldn't be talk of blockings, even more so of seizures," the spokesperson said.

Russia has longstanding commercial and military ties with Iran and has condemned sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union over Western allegations Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.