EU Court Allows Unit of Deutsche Boerse to Comply with US sanctions

Clearstream Banking AG in Luxemburg (AFP)
Clearstream Banking AG in Luxemburg (AFP)
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EU Court Allows Unit of Deutsche Boerse to Comply with US sanctions

Clearstream Banking AG in Luxemburg (AFP)
Clearstream Banking AG in Luxemburg (AFP)

The European Commission was right to allow Clearstream Banking AG, a unit of Deutsche Boerse, to comply with US sanctions on Iran and therefore interrupt payments to an Tehran-controlled holding, the European Union’s General Court said on Wednesday.

The Court added that the plaintiff IFIC Holding AG is a German company whose shares are held indirectly by the Iranian State and which itself has shareholdings in various German undertakings.

“The Commission did not err in its assessment by not taking into account the applicant’s interests or by failing to examine whether less onerous alternatives existed,” the Court said.

In August 2020, judgment creditors of Iran filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking turnover of Iranian assets, they said belonged to the Central Bank of Iran, Bank Markazi.

At the time, Clearstream said it considers any claims for damages against it in this context to be unfounded and will take all necessary and appropriate measures to decisively defeat such claims.

For several years, US authorities had targeted Clearstream, looking at possible violations of money laundering and Iran sanctions laws.

Deutsche Boerse had denied wrongdoing.

Early in 2018, Iran’s central bank, Bank Markazi, has filed a suit in Luxembourg against Deutsche Boerse’s Clearstream unit seeking to recover $4.9 billion in assets plus interest.

The assets were frozen on suspicion of terror financing and as compensation for the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Iranian assets also remain frozen in connection with a court case over the bombing of a US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 241 Americans.

In April 2020, a Luxembourg court said it blocked a long-running US request to transfer $1.6 billion in Iranian assets to victims of the September 11 attacks.

However, the statement added that the ruling was not final and could be appealed at Luxembourg’s highest court.



A Week after Catastrophic Earthquake, Focus Turns to a Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar

Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
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A Week after Catastrophic Earthquake, Focus Turns to a Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar

Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)

Search teams pulled more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake rocked Myanmar killing more than 3,100 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country that was already devastated by civil war.

United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, was to arrive Friday in an effort to spur action following the quake. Ahead of his visit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims "to match the scale of this crisis," and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.

"The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner," he said Thursday.

Myanmar authorities said Thursday that 3,145 people had been killed, with another 4,589 people injured and 221 missing, and did not immediately update the figures on Friday.

Britain, which had already given $13 million to purchase emergency items like food, water and shelter, pledged an additional $6.5 million in funds to match an appeal from Myanmar's Disasters Emergency Committee, according to the UK Embassy in Yangon.

Many international search and rescue teams were also on the scene, and eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia were operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmar's military-run government. Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore were helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region.

The Trump administration has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to US foreign assistance.

On Friday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake March 28, authorities said. The last reported rescue came Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay.

The quake also shook neighboring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued Friday. Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.

Myanmar´s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.

The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

As concerns grew that ongoing fighting could hamper humanitarian aid efforts, the military declared a temporary ceasefire Wednesday, through April 22. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule.

On Thursday, however, there were renewed airstrikes in Kayah state, also known as Karenni, in eastern Myanmar, according to witnesses.

The military has said that it would still take "necessary" measures against resistance groups, if they use the ceasefire to regroup, train or launch attacks, and the groups have said they reserved the right to defend themselves.