This article was originally published Oct. 27, 2020, on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
The United States on Oct. 26 imposed fresh sanctions targeting key Iranian companies, entities, and individuals active in the country’s oil sector.
The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that the activity of those sanctioned supports the Quds Force, the elite foreign paramilitary and espionage arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
“The regime in Iran uses the petroleum sector to fund the destabilizing activities of the IRGC-QF,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.
“The Iranian regime continues to prioritize its support for terrorist entities and its nuclear program over the needs of the Iranian people,” he added.
Among those sanctioned are the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), and National Iranian Tanker Company.
The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets of those blacklisted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.
The action also imposes counterterrorism sanctions on NIOC, the National Iranian Tanker Company, and National Petrochemical Company, which had previously been blacklisted by Washington under different authorities.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have soared since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal struck by President Barack Obama in 2015. Since then the United States has reimposed sanctions that had been eased under the accord and added other new ones.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are part of a maximum pressure campaign to limit the Iranian regime’s ability to threaten its neighbors and destabilize the Middle East.
“The few remaining buyers of Iranian crude oil should know that they are helping to fund Iran’s malign activity across the Middle East, including its support for terrorism,” Pompeo said in a statement.
The sanctions also come after the United States last week claimed that Iran has been interfering with the 2020 presidential election. Iran called the accusation “baseless.”
Copyright (c)2020 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Coffee or Die is Black Rifle Coffee Company’s online lifestyle magazine. Launched in June 2018, the magazine covers a variety of topics that generally focus on the people, places, or things that are interesting, entertaining, or informative to America’s coffee drinkers — often going to dangerous or austere locations to report those stories.
The F-22 Raptor was designed to fight next-gen Russian fighters. So far its only air-to-air kills are a Chinese balloon and a UFO.
The US Navy outwitted and outfought the Imperial Japanese Navy to secure victory in the do-or-die Battle of Midway.
Ukrainian forces were making a major effort to end months of a battlefield stalemate and punch throu...
With Father’s Day rapidly approaching, take a look back at some of the raddest dads to ever walk the planet.
Dozens of World War II veterans, mostly Americans and British, traveled to Normandy this week to mar...
Keeping up his family tradition, action sports legend Travis Pastrana hosted wounded veterans at his 65-acre ‘Pastranaland’ over Memorial Day weekend.
Fort Bragg shed its Confederate namesake Friday to become Fort Liberty in a ceremony some veterans s...
It’s less than two weeks until Father’s Day, and last-minute gifts for Dad are harder to come by tha...
