US further eases Iran sanctions

Washington: The Obama administration is further easing sanctions on Iran, making it easier for foreign firms to do business with the country following last year’s nuclear deal.

Shortly before 6pm on Friday at the start of the Columbus Day holiday weekend in the United States, the Treasury Department published new guidance for businesses that said some previously prohibited dollar transactions with Iran by offshore banking institutions are allowed as long as they do not enter the US financial system.

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Maseratis, cheap sandals expose Iran’s divide

Valiasr Street, the 12-mile boulevard that Shah Reza Pahlavi built in the 1930s to link his summer palaces in the north of Tehran to a new train station in the south, connects two increasingly polarised Iranian worlds.

At the top, where the city climbs into the foothills of the Alborz mountains, the wealthy try to escape Tehran’s dense pollution. Their marbled apartments can go for $10 million (Dh36.7 million), stores sell Rolexes and Maseratis. Chicly dressed women have their compulsory headscarves casually slung.

By the time you reach the flat, smog-

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