Politics can make for strange bedfellows, but also curious financial deals. The granting of a preliminary license by the Syrian government last month to establish a joint Syrian-Iranian commercial bank, Banki or “My Bank,” has raised eyebrows. Both of the banks behind the joint venture, Bank Saderat (BS) and the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS), are under United States (US) sanctions. Saderat, the Iranian export bank, has faced sanctions since 2006 for the alleged transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizbullah and other “terrorist” organizations. CBS has been listed under US Patriot Act Section 311 since 2004 as a “money laundering concern.” It’s a curious deal. Bilateral trade between Syria and Iran is estimated at a mere $200 million, a figure that would seemingly not warrant more than a correspondent bank, much less a new institution. “Iranian investments are very limited. They don’t go beyond the $150
