"The days of turning a blind eye to Iran's hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over," Flynn said in a White House statement. A senior administration official said the latest sanctions were the initial steps in response to Iran's "provocative behaviour", suggesting more could follow if Tehran does not curb its ballistic missile program and continues support in regional proxy conflicts. The administration was "undertaking a larger strategic review" of how it responds to Iran.
Those affected cannot access the US financial system or deal with US companies and are subject to secondary sanctions, meaning foreign companies and individuals are prohibited from dealing with them or risk being blacklisted by the United States. The White House said that while the sanctions, the first actions against Iran by the U.S. government since President Donald Trump took office, were a reaction to recent events, they had been under consideration before.
They added that a landmark 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear program was not in the best interest of the United States. Iran denounced the sanctions as illegal and said it would impose legal restrictions on American individuals and entities helping "regional terrorist groups", state TV quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.
Ahead of the announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted: "We will never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defence". The new designations stuck to areas that remain under sanctions even with the 2015 nuclear deal sealed between Iran and world powers in place, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military body that is powerful in Iranian politics and the economy, and Iran's ballistic missile program. Zarif led Iran's delegation at the nuclear negotiations in 2015.
Among those affected by the sanctions were what it said was a Lebanon-based network run by the Revolutionary Guards.
The sanctions' impact will be more symbolic than practical, especially as they do not affect the lifting of broader US and international sanctions that took place under the nuclear deal. Also, few of the Iranian entities being targeted are likely to have US assets that can be frozen, and U.S. companies, with few exceptions, are barred from doing business with Iran. Meanwhile, the US moved a Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen to protect waterways from Houthi militia aligned with Iran.
DESIGNATIONS German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Friday expressed understanding over the sanctions, saying Iran's missile test last Sunday was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
However, Gabriel warned against conflating Sunday's test with the nuclear deal. The White House said the sanctions made clear the nuclear deal was not in Washington's best interest.
The U.S. Treasury, which listed the individuals and entities affected on its website, said the sanctions were "fully consistent" with US commitments under the nuclear deal.
Some of the entities involved are based in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and China.
Among those affected were companies, individuals and brokers the U.S. Treasury said support a trade network run by Iranian businessman Abdollah Asgharzadeh. Treasury said he supported Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which the United States has said is a subsidiary of an Iranian entity that runs Iran's ballistic missile program.
Copyright Reuters, 2017