Press
Showing 1-20 of 63 Items
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How Billions in Iranian Money Passes Through U.S. Banks
“The more you use the tools, the more you create incentives for alternatives” to the dollar, said Alex Zerden, a former Treasury official and adjunct senior fellow at the Cent...
By Alex Zerden
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World Mostly Shrugs Off Bessent’s Iran Sanctions Warnings
“As the war passes the six-month mark, the public actions taken by the Treasury Department this week do not match the hype,” said Alex Zerden, an adjunct senior fellow at the ...
By Alex Zerden
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Washington Lays Out Its Toolbox for Pressuring Iran and Its Partners
Alex Zerden, founder of Capitol Peak Strategies and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told MBN that the United States had “a range of economic a...
By Alex Zerden
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The Iran War Is Testing a Depleted Treasury
But Alex Zerden, a former Treasury official and founder of Capitol Peak Strategies, now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the departures...
By Alex Zerden
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Treasury Scales Back Scrutiny of U.S. Shell Companies
Alex Zerden, the founder of the risk advisory firm Capitol Peak Strategies and a former official in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, n...
By Alex Zerden
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Trump’s Remaining Economic Levers in Iran Fraught With Risks
Secondary sanctions and further measures could also alienate key partners, while inflaming tension with China, the chief US economic rival. “It's absolutely intertwined with t...
By Alex Zerden
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Iran-Linked Crypto Exchange Handled $6.3 Billion, TRM Says
“The IRGC says one thing ideologically, such as gambling is illegal, and then runs or profits from the gambling racket,” said Alex Zerden, a former US Treasury official and ad...
By Alex Zerden
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U.S. Terror Delisting Opens Syria to Gulf Investors
“The U.S. can’t compel private businesses to actually do business in Syria,” [Alex] Zerden said. “They need to make their own independent risk-based decisions about what their...
By Alex Zerden
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Why Iran’s Limited Economic Relief Was Easy Come, Easy Go
Alex Zerden, a former Treasury official and founder of Capitol Peak Strategies, said the sanctions reflect the political dynamics at play. “It appears that the President was f...
By Alex Zerden
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Can the US Waive Sanctions on Iranian Oil?
Regardless, “we’re a long way away from full unwinding [of sanctions] and US companies entering the Iranian market,” Capitol Peak Strategies’ Alex Zerden, a former Treasury De...
By Alex Zerden
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Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
Iran’s Oil Lifeline Outlasted the U.S. Assault, Strengthening Its Hand“Iran over the years and across U.S. administrations developed sophisticated sanctions evasion techniques to receive revenue from selling oil,” said Alex Zerden, a former Trea...
By Alex Zerden
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Trump Weighs Releasing Billions to Iran After Blasting Past Payments
“Based on our modeling, a lot of these potential bargaining chips look similar to those available during the Obama, Trump I and Biden administrations,” said Alex Zerden, an ad...
By Alex Zerden
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A Deal with Iran May Need Some Delusional Thinking to Work
“The fundamentals of diplomatic negotiations often require a suspension of disbelief,” said Alex Zerden, a former Treasury Department diplomat who has worked for both Republic...
By Alex Zerden
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Trump Administration Expected to Keep Waiving Russian Oil Sanctions as Iran Call Looms
“Tinkering with Iranian oil is not a sanctions question at the end of the day; it’s about the market’s general assessment of this conflict’s direction,” said Capitol Peak Stra...
By Alex Zerden
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Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
U.S. Encourages Flow of Iranian Oil While It Battles Iran“Iran will likely profit from these sales, thereby providing more money to fund its regime, the war and its proxies,” said Alex Zerden, [adjunct senior fellow at the Center fo...
By Alex Zerden
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Trump’s Actions in Iran and Venezuela Show Limits of U.S. Sanctions
The United States has for years deployed a carefully designed economic statecraft playbook to pressure American adversaries to change their behavior....
By Alex Zerden
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Trump Administration’s Venezuela Approach Gets Murkier
Nearly six weeks after the Trump administration ousted Venezuela’s leader with plans to effectively run the country, its manner of doing so is increasingly opaque....
By Alex Zerden
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U.N. Security Council Removes Syria’s President from Sanctions List
The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to remove President Ahmed al-Shara of Syria from a terrorism sanctions list, just days before his planned visit to Washin...
By Alex Zerden
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Syria’s Fractured Banking Sector Poses New Challenge for U.S. Regulators
Syria is continuing to focus on attracting foreign investment as it seeks to be reintegrated into the global financial system, but the country’s damaged banking sector poses a...
By Alex Zerden
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Middle East Security / Energy, Economics & Security
With Trump Pressure and a ‘New Lebanon,’ Can Hezbollah’s Shadow Economy Be Dismantled?Up until a few months ago, the drive from Beirut’s international airport through the Lebanese capital city’s southern suburbs used to feature a stream of pro-Iranian and Hezbo...
By Alex Zerden