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The Iranian government vehemently condemned a new series of United States sanctions which targeted more than 115 people, entities and ships linked to its petroleum and petrochemical sectors, calling the measures a continuation of the “hostile policy” of Washington and an “assault on the Iranian people”.
The sanctions, announced Wednesday by the US State Department, represent the last stage of the American “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at paralyzing Tehran’s energy income, the decision promoting the rapid denunciation of Tehran as unjust and provocative.
Nowsweek contacted the US State Department and the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Comments.
Why it matters
The sanctions marked the most radical American economic action against the Iranian energy sector since the Trump administration left the nuclear agreement in 2018, and they followed a major escalation of the regional conflict. In June, the United States joined Israel to launch coordinated strikes on Iranian targets, considerably disturbing the nuclear infrastructure of Tehran.
With standby diplomacy and Iran expanding links with Russia and China, sanctions are designed to paralyze financial networks supplying the economy of Iran and, by extension, its power and its influence on proxy groups in the region.
The possible implications of the decision include the additional destabilization of the global energy markets and a deepening of the east-west geopolitical divisions.
Atta Kenare / Getty Images
What to know
Iranian authorities accused the United States of intensifying economic assault on Thursday. His spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baqaei, said that the decision was “clear proof of the hostility of American decision-makers towards the Iranian people”, insisting that the Iranians would resist pressure with resolution.
He said the sanctions had been designed to “weaken Iran and violate the fundamental rights of each Iranian”.
Baqaei also accused the Trump administration of suffering from a “chronic dependence on unilateralism” and of relying on “pressure tactics in search of illegitimate objectives”, the rhetoric which signals an increasing frustration in Tehran as economic and diplomatic tensions.
The largest set of American sanctions
New American sanctions have been the largest measures linked to Iran since 2018, targeting more than 115 people, entities and ships linked to the country’s oil sector.
The package focuses on a global shipping network under control by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of a main advisor to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He appointed 20 oil companies, five ship management companies, a wholesaler and dozens of actors in 17 countries and regions, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, India, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.
The US government said the network had laundered billions of dollars in oil and petrochemical income, mainly through secret shipments to China. Using foreign passports, screens and misleading maritime tactics, this helped Tehran to sanctions. Washington frozen its assets linked to the United States and blocked access to the American financial system, the announcement.
What people say
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baqaei: “The Iranian people, aware of the malicious intentions of these aggressor sanctions – whose sole purpose is to weaken Iran and to violate the fundamental rights of each Iranian – will remain firm with all their forces to protect their dignity and their interests.”
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The spokesperson for the American State Department Tammy Bruce: “The measures of the State Department of today are taken under the Executive Decree (EO) 13846, which targets the Iranian oil and petrochemical sectors. It marks the eleventh cycle of sanctions targeting Iranian oil sales since the president issued the presidential submoir of national security 2.
What happens next
With nuclear diplomacy at neutral and American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites that are still reflected, the new oil sanctions aim to stifle one of the most critical sources of income in Tehran. By targeting the shipping and export infrastructure behind the Iranian oil trade, the United States increases economic pressure at a time of increased regional instability.
This decision threatens to harden the position of Iran, to deepen the dead end between Tehran and Washington, and further decreases any realistic perspective for a diplomatic solution.
