TEHERAN: Iran's Foreign Ministry yesterday flatly denied any currency had been transferred from Teheran's overseas accounts to protect holdings from possible economic sanctions over work on its atomic programme.

The Foreign Ministry's statement contradicted Central Bank Governor Ebrahim Sheibani, who was quoted on Friday as saying foreign holdings were being shifted.

The Central Bank of Iran, in a statement yesterday, denied a newspaper report that it was shifting funds to East Asia but did not comment on whether transfers were occurring elsewhere. It also did not address the contradiction with the Foreign Ministry.

"So far we have not moved any hard currency. We have not transferred it," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told a news conference.

Iran has bitter memories of its US assets being frozen after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Sheibani on Wednesday told reporters that Iran stood ready to repatriate foreign-held assets if that were to prove necessary.

On Friday, he was quoted by the ISNA and Fars news agencies as saying: "We transfer foreign reserves to wherever we see as expedient. On this issue, we have started transferring. We are doing that."

Prior to Sheibani's comments on Friday, the Asharq al-Awsat Arabic daily reported that Iran's Supreme National Security Council had ordered that overseas assets be sent to Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Malaysia.

Analysts said it was unclear what Iran would gain by transferring money to other foreign accounts, which would be equally subject to UN measures.

Swiss bank cutting ties with Iran

A spokesman of Swiss bank UBS said yesterday that the bank is cutting ties with all of its customers in Iran because of high compliance costs, adding that the decision was not driven by political motives.

"We started to exit customer relationships with counterparties in Iran in autumn last year," UBS spokesman Serge Steiner said.

Separately, a source close to the company said the world's sixth-largest bank was also severing relationships with Syrian clients. UBS declined to comment.

Source: China Daily