It has emerged that the administration of US President Barak Obama pressured two French banks into not writing letter of credit (L/C) business with one of India's largest firms because of its dealings with Iran.

Reliance Industries eventually bowed to US pressure last year by calling a halt to its petroleum exports to Iran.

Targeted

In 2009, India's largest private sector conglomerate by market value became a key target for the US administration.

Reliance's dealings with Iran particularly annoyed US legislators, because the Indian company was benefiting from US Export-Import Bank guarantees worth US$900 million.

L/C pressure

This apparently prompted the Obama administration to pressure French banks BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole into severing their L/Cs to Reliance for its Iran dealings, according to an Indian news channel.

According to The Express, Reliance not only agreed to halt all of its sales to Iran, it also insisted that its trading partners did so too.

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