Trump Administration Announces New Iran Sanctions
President Donald Trump and the Department of the Treasury announced new Iran sanctions that target the country’s supreme leader and eight senior military officials, the White House said June 24.
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The sanctions will further deny Iran access to “financial resources” and allow the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to sanction anyone who provides “material support” or “conducts significant transactions” with the Iranian regime. The Executive Order sanctioned Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his office, while OFAC’s action designated eight senior commanders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Navy, Aerospace and Ground Forces.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the move was partly triggered by Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone earlier in June but were also sanctions the administration had been planning. “This is something that was going to happen anyway,” Trump said. Trump warned of a harsher U.S. retaliation in the future and said the U.S. will continue to sanction Iran until the country “abandons its dangerous activities and aspirations.” “I think a lot of restraint has been shown by us,” he said. “That doesn't mean we're going to show it in the future.”
The president also said the U.S. would “love” to negotiate a new trade deal with Iran to replace the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action but said the country must first end its state-sponsored terrorism. “I look forward to the day when sanctions can be finally lifted,” Trump said. “In the meantime, who knows what’s going to happen.”
Trump also addressed Iran’s June 18 announcement that it is planning to reduce its JCPOA commitments and will increase its enriched uranium production to exceed the limit set by the deal (see 1906190042). “I won’t say what I’ll do, but I don’t think they should do it,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. will continue to “increase pressure on Tehran until the regime abandons its ... pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
The sanctions give the U.S. authority to “lock up literally billions of dollars” of Iranian assets, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters after Trump signed the order. Along with the eight military commanders and Iran’s supreme leader, Mnuchin also said Trump plans to sanction Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this week.
Mnuchin called the sanctions “highly effective” at cutting off funds to the IRGC and Iran’s economy, but declined to say whether any of the designated people have financial assets in the U.S. or outside of Iran. “We follow the money and it’s highly effective,” he said. Mnuchin also said the U.S. has not coordinated these sanctions with allies but said he has had “general” conversations about U.S. sanction regimes with its partners.
The Iranian military officials named in the announcement include IRGC Navy Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri, IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, IRGC’s Ground Forces Commander Mohammad Pakpour and IRGCN Naval District commanders Abbas Gholamshahi, Ramezan Zirahi, Yadollah Badin, Mansur Ravankar and Ali Ozma’i, OFAC said.