AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The US has imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemicals sectors in reaction to the Islamic Republic’s recent retaliatory missile attacks against Israeli targets.
The US Treasury Department on Friday designated 10 companies and 17 vessels as blocked property, claiming they were involved in shipments of Iranian oil and petrochemical products.
The department said that the sanctions are designed to intensify financial pressure on Iran, including by limiting its ability to earn the energy revenue it uses to help resistance movements across the Middle East.
The department said its sanctions targeted “a significant portion” of the shadow fleet of tankers that move Iran’s petroleum exports.
US officials separately described the measures as an attempt to disrupt revenues they claim Iran uses to fund its military activities.
Tehran says its military development program is defensive. It says the unilateral sanctions by the US are part of an economic war on the people of Iran and undermine the country’s independence.
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said, "In response to Iran’s attack on Israel, the United States is taking decisive action to disrupt further the Iranian regime’s ability to fund and carry out its destabilizing activity.”
“Today’s sanctions target Iranian efforts to channel revenues from its energy industry to finance deadly and disruptive activity—including development of its nuclear program, the proliferation of ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles,” he said.
“We will not hesitate to take further action to hold Iran accountable,” he added.
Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States is “committed to curtailing Iran’s sources of revenue for its malign activities.”
“As long as Iran devotes its energy revenues to funding attacks on our allies, supporting terrorism around the world and pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold it accountable,” Blinken said, leveling baseless accusations against the country.
The Treasury Department said sanctions were imposed in the spirit of the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act, bipartisan legislation to sanction foreigners involved in oil trade from Iran.
“The United States is taking this action in the spirit of the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act (SHIP Act), enacted as a part of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the 2024 Fiscal Year (P.L. 118-50), which imposes sanctions against foreign persons involved in the trade of petroleum and petroleum products originating in Iran and was recently delegated by the President to the Departments of the Treasury and State,” the department said.
On October 1, Iran launched a barrage of missiles toward the Zionist entity’s military and intelligence and spying bases in a retaliatory attack.
The operation came in response to the regime’s assassinations of Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.
Iran’s defense minister said the Islamic Republic’s retaliatory operation against the Israeli regime, dubbed Operation True Promise II, has been more than 90% successful.
“Operation True Promise II was carried out with more than 90% success and was fully compliant with international laws,” said Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh.
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