US Slaps New Sanctions on Iran After Attack on Israel
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration slapped Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors with a new round of stiff sanctions in response to the country’s Oct. 1 attack against Israel.
According to the Treasury Department, which announced the sanctions on Friday, the penalties will specifically target the so-called “shadow fleet” that Iran uses to sell oil in circumvention of standing sanctions.
The action is intended to intensify financial pressure on Iran, limiting the regime’s ability to earn the critical energy revenues it needs to undermine stability in the region and attack U.S. partners and allies.
The action taken Friday designates 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked properties.” The Office of Foreign Assets Control defines blocked property as assets or other property that have been frozen, prohibiting any transfers or dealings with them.
“In response to Iran’s attack on Israel, the United States is taking decisive action to further disrupt the Iranian regime’s ability to fund and carry out its destabilizing activity,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
“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,” she said.
In a related action, the State Department announced it was sanctioning an additional six firms and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran.”
The sanctions mark the Biden administration’s first punitive response to the Oct. 1 attack, during which an estimated 200 ballistic missiles were fired in the direction of Israeli territory in retaliation for Israel’s killing of two Iran-backed Hezbollah leaders and a general from Iran’s revolutionary guards.
Israel has yet to reveal what its response to the attack will be, but has indicated it will be “deadly, precise and surprising.”
Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room last week, President Joe Biden said Israel had “not concluded” how they were going to strike back.
“That’s under discussion,” he said, adding, “I think, if I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields.”
Meanwhile, at the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions should have enough bite “to disrupt the flow of revenue the Iranian regime uses to fund its nuclear program and missile development, [and] support terrorist proxies and partners.”
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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