Nov. 5, 2018–Six months after pulling out of the six-party nuclear deal, the United States has launched new sanctions against Iran, impacting its banks, shipping industry, businesses and individuals. The sanctions block assets and transactions on over 900 targets, many of them newly named.
“They’ll be the toughest sanctions ever placed against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday in an interview with CBS News.
The sanctions mean that companies doing business with both the U.S. and Iranian firms will have to make a choice: Pick a side. You cannot do business with both countries.
According to Pompeo, some business leaders quit conducting business in Iran based on the U.S. decision to withdraw from the six-party nuclear deal. “European companies have fled Iran in great numbers,” he said.
Eight Exemptions Provide a ‘Balancing Act’
Even as the new sanctions go into effect, the United States is providing exemptions to eight countries. In effect, the exemptions allow Japan, India, South Korea, China, Turkey, Greece, Taiwan and Italy to continue to buy Iranian oil.
In a briefing last week, Pompeo said the U.S. government is granting the exemptions because the countries “demonstrated significant reductions in their crude oil and cooperation on many other fronts.”
According to Bloomberg News, the Trump administration is trying to “maintain a delicate balancing act” between ensuring the global oil market has sufficient supply and reducing Iranian government revenues.
Pompeo said the “laser-focused approach” keeps prices stable while reducing Iranian oil exports.
The price of oil (Brent) hovered around $73 per barrel on Monday, down about five percent from last week but right about where it was last May.
New Targets, New Demands
The new sanctions list includes 900 targets, including 700 entities, 50 Iranian banks, 200 individuals, shipping vessels and 65 Iranian aircraft. That marks “the highest-ever level of U.S. economic pressure on Iran,” according to a U.S. Treasury Department press release.
“Iran’s leaders must cease support for terrorism, stop proliferating ballistic missiles, end destructive regional activities, and abandon their nuclear ambitions immediately if they seek a path to sanctions relief,” said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here. We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists.”
Iran’s Response
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani likened the situation to “a war situation” and vowed to continue selling its oil on the global market.
“With people’s help and unity, we have to make Americans understand that they cannot talk to the great Iranian nation with the language of pressure and sanctions. They have to be punished,” Rouhani said during a meeting with his economic ministry. “What the Americans are doing today is putting pressure merely on the people.”
In a reference to the 2015 nuclear deal, Rouhani added that Iran is willing to talk but only with parties that honor their commitments. “If the other party pledges value to its commitments, negotiation is not a problem.”
