Hits over 200 Persons, 65 Aircrafts, 50 Iranian Banks
Admin l Tuesday, November 06, 2018
WASHINGTON, U.S– The United States has vowed to impose severe punishment on companies that continue to do business with Islamic Republic of Iran in defiance of sactions, stressing that doing business with Iran in defiance will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran.
Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo who was speaking at a press conference in Washington said the Trump administration has imposed 19 rounds of sanctions targetting 168 Iranians entities, stressing that the new sanctions will accelerate rapid decline of international economic activity in Iran. Pompeo added that since May, over 100 companies have either withdrawn from Iran or cancelled plans to do busines there.
“It should be noted that if a company evades our sanctions regime and secretly continues sanctionable commerce in the Islamic Republic, the United States will levy severe, swift penalties on it, including potential sanctions. I promise you that doing business with Iran in defiance of our sanctions will ultimately be a much more painful business decision than pulling out of Iran and it – being connected to Iran entirely”, he said.
According to him, more than 20 importing nations have zeroed out their imports of crude oil already, taking more than one million barrels of crude per day off the market, adding that the regime today, since May, has lost over $2.5 billion in oil revenue.
“We have decided to issue temporary allotments to a handful of countries responsible to specific circumstances and to ensure a well-supplied oil market. The U.S. will be granting these exemptions to China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey. Each of those countries has already demonstrated significant reductions of the purchase of Iranian crude over the past six months, and indeed two of those eight have already completely ended imports of Iranian crude and will not resume as long as the sanctions regime remains in place. We continue negotiations to get all of the nations to zero”, he noted, and that 100 percent of the revenue Iran receives from the sale of oil will be held in foreign accounts. “Iran can only use this money for humanitarian trade or bilateral – in bilateral nonsanctioned goods”.
Also speaking, Secretary of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin said today, the US sanctioned more than 700 individuals, entities, aircraft, and vessels as part of Treasury’s largest ever single day action targeting Iran.
“Over 300 of those sanctions are new targets. In addition, we are relisting hundreds of individuals and entities that were previously sanctioned, granted sanctions relief under the JCPOA.
“These powerful sanctions directly target Iran’s banking, energy, and shipping sectors. The Iranian regime has funneled billions of dollars for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps force through the banking sector. Today’s designation includes 50 Iranian banks and their foreign and domestic subsidiaries in conduction with Iran’s regime support for international terrorism, proliferation of mass destruction, or their means of delivery and human rights abuses.
“Our actions include the identification of more than 400 targets, including over 200 persons and vessels in Iran’s shipping and energy sector; Iran Air, the national airline of Iran, and more than 65 aircraft; the placement of nearly 250 persons in associated block properties on the Specially Designated Nationals list; the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran”, he said.
He explained that to date, more than 900 Iran-related targets have been sanctioned under this administration in less than two years, marking the highest-ever level of U.S. economic pressure on Iran.
“We are making it abundantly clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation until they fundamentally change their destabilizing behavior. Iran’s leaders must cease support for terrorism and end destructive regional activities immediately. They must stop ballistic missiles and abandon their nuclear ambitions if they seek a path to sanctions relief. We are watching the Iranian regime with laser focus. If they try to evade our sanctions, we will take action to disrupt their activity time and time again”, he said.
