Oct. 11 (UPI) — The Biden administration on Friday expanded sanctions against Iran’s oil and petrochemical industries in response to Tehran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.
In the latest round of actions against the Islamic Republic, the Treasury Department targeted its so-called “ghost fleet” of third-party tankers and vessels which transport Iranian oil to buyers in Asia in defiance of earlier U.S. sanctions, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
As part of that move issued under Executive Order 13846, 10 companies and 17 vessels were identified as “blocked property” over their involvement for their involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products for the sanctioned National Iranian Oil Company and Triliance Petrochemical Co. Limited.
Another six companies and six ships for were sanction for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran.”
“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.
“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, and support to regional terrorist proxies — with dangerous consequences for the region and the world. We will not hesitate to take further action to hold Iran accountable.”
Washington is “committed to curtailing Iran’s sources of revenue for its malign activities,” the Secretary of State Antony Blinken added. “As long as Iran devotes its energy revenues to funding attacks on our allies, supporting terrorism around the world, and pursuing other destabilizing actions, we will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to hold it accountable.”
Iran targeted Israel with 200 ballistic missiles on Oct. 1 in an unprecedented direct assault against its bitter enemy that sent much of country’s population scurrying into bomb shelters. The assault came in response to Israel’s killing of top leaders of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as well as key figures in Iranian proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to make Iran pay for the assault. The government is still debating how it will respond, but Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the strike will be “deadly, precise and, above all, surprising,” adding, “They will not understand what happened and how it happened. They will see the results.”
