Financial transactions for humanitarian or development purposes would be allowed.
The UK issues, as a priority, licenses for transactions for humanitarian goods.
"While it is the government's policy not to encourage trade with Iran, Her Majesty's Treasury does prioritise the licensing of transactions for humanitarian goods, including medicines and foodstuffs".
The system is irrational: There is a blanket waiver to the sanctions to facilitate humanitarian trade, but other laws restricting financial transactions with Iran make it impossible to implement that exception.
Exploiting this availability and paying for sex is a particularly morally fraught transaction for humanitarians, who are supposed to be there to help.
In light of the sector-wide effort to "localize," humanitarian organizations have been increasingly willing to frame themselves as a "transaction cost" that "needs to prove added value" (WHS, Charter for Change) (Aly 2013).
So, why not harness the proceeds of a currency transaction tax on those speculative, daily large-scale financial deals, to pay for the humanitarian need of the human cross-border movement crisis?
The European Union "agreed to prohibit all transactions between European and Iranian banks unless authorized in advance under strict conditions with exemptions for humanitarian needs," according to an official statement.
Seeking to address the problem, European governments agreed in October to shift tactics by moving away from blacklisting individual banks and instead imposing across-the-board measures, like requiring authorization of transactions of more than 10,000 euros, or about $13,100, with some exceptions for transfers in areas like humanitarian aid, medical equipment and farming.
