US imposes further sanctions on Iran | Israel Today

The US Treasury Department has imposed heavy sanctions on senior officials of the Iranian Oil Corporation and the country's largest tanker company •

• Iran's oil industry // Photo: Reuters

The administration of US President Donald Trump has not rested on the Iranian issue and continues to impose overwhelming US economic pressure on Iran ahead of next week's presidential election.

The US Treasury Department announced today (Monday) the imposition of new sanctions on the Islamic Republic, this time on the country's oil industry. 

A statement from the Ministry of Finance stated that the new sanctions are aimed at senior Iranian energy officials, including the Iranian oil minister, because the country is using the profits of the oil industry and the oil trading infrastructure it provides to fund and transport Quds Force personnel, the international arm of The Revolutionary Guards Organization, which the United States defines as a terrorist organization. 

Along with the Iranian oil minister, the Iranian National Oil Corporation and the Iranian National Tanker Corporation have been blacklisted by the US Treasury Department.

Among the senior officials included under the sanctions are also four Iranian businessmen who, according to the US Treasury Department, took an important part in the sale of fuel to the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. 

US Treasury Secretary Steve Menuhin said in a brief statement that: "The regime in Iran is using the oil sector to destabilize neighboring countries through the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards." 

The United States has imposed a large number of sanctions on Iran's economy, due to its persistence in developing its nuclear program and its refusal to negotiate outside the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal, an agreement from which US President Donald Trump emerged.

About two weeks ago, the US administration sailed a series of sanctions aimed at hitting the foreign exchange flow to Iran and it includes sanctions on 18 banks and financial institutions that have not been harmed before from previous sanctions.

Finance Minister Steve Menuhin commented on the package of sanctions, saying: "Our main goal is to prevent the illegal leakage of dollars into Iran."