FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
New Round of U.S. Sanctions Against Iran Go Into Effect
Nov. 5, 2018 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin announced today that the second round of sanctions against Iran, pursuant to President Trump’s May 8 announcement of withdrawal from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which took effect today. The sanctions are particularly aimed at Iran’s financial sector, hitting 50 banks and other financial institutions for allegedly facilitating the activities of the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force. The sanctions are also aimed at reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero, and well as a range of other activities engaged in by the Iranian government. “Our objective is to starve the Iranian regime of the revenue it uses to fund violent and destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East, and indeed around the world,” Pompeo said during a press availability, today. “Our ultimate goal is to convince the regime to abandon its current revolutionary course.”
“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,”
Mnuchin said in a separate statement issued by the Treasury Department.
“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.”
With regard to the oil sanctions, Pompeo said that 20 countries have already ended imports from Iran, while China, India, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey have received six-month waivers until they can reduce their imports to zero. “We continue negotiations to get all of the nations to zero,” he said.
