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2.0 Politics
2.1 US ramps up Iran sanctions ahead of election
The US this week imposed sanctions on Iran’s Minister of Petroleum as well as various state-owned companies related to the sector in a final turn of the knife before Americans go to the ballot on November 3.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: “The Iranian regime continues to prioritise its support for terrorist entities and its nuclear programme over the needs of the Iranian people.”
He added that the sanctions had been imposed because of the oil industry’s support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the elite Quds Force (QF).
In addition to Minister Bijan Zanganeh, the Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) and the National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC) were designated “pursuant to [executive order] 13224, a counterterrorism authority, for their financial support” the IRGC QF, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
In particular, it said that senior NIOC and NITC officials had collaborated closely with senior IRGC-QF official Rostam Ghasemi, who was designated in 2019. Ghasemi has stepped into the role left by IRGC-QF Commander Qasem Soleimani after he was killed by a US drone strike in early 2020.
Separately, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “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.”
Meanwhile, Zanganeh hit back, saying that the new sanctions were “a passive reaction to the failure of Washington’s policy of reducing [Iran’s] crude oil exports to zero.” He added: “The era of unilateralism is over in the world. Iran’s oil industry will not be hamstrung.”
NIOC subsidiaries included in the latest round of sanctions include National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Co. (NIORDC), National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Co. (NIOPDC), Iranian Oil Pipelines and Telecommunications Co., National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Co., Abadan Oil Refining Co., Imam Khomeini Shazand Oil Refining Co. and the National Petrochemical Co. (NPC).
Meanwhile, Zanganeh was joined by NIOC’s managing director Masoud Karbasian, NITC’s managing director Nasrollah Sardashti, NIORDC director Alireza Sadiqabadi and NPC managing director Behzad Mohammadi as individuals being designated.
The move follows the imposition of strictures on 18 banks as Washington targeted the financial sector.
6 IRAN Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com
