US expands sanctions against Iran’s oil biz

AFP | Washington, United States                                                

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The United States hit Iran’s oil and petrochemicals sectors with fresh sanctions yesterday in response to Tehran’s October 1 attack against Israel, designating dozens of new companies and firms.

In a statement Friday, the Treasury Department said it was going after Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships involved in selling Iranian oil in circumvention of existing sanctions, designating 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked property” over their involvement in “shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.”

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 form part of the US response to Iran’s attack, in which it launched some 200 ballistic missiles against Israel in retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders and a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Israel has said its response to Iran’s second direct attack against its territory this year would be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”

US President Joe Biden told reporters last week that Israel should consider “other alternatives than striking oil fields,” amid reports it was planning to do so. “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 added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had made clear after the October 1 attack that Tehran would face consequences.

“To that end, we are taking steps today to disrupt the flow of revenue the Iranian regime uses to fund its nuclear program and missile development, support terrorist proxies and partners, and perpetuate conflict throughout the Middle East,” he said in a statement.