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Eurasia
July 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 16
US imposes more sanctions against Iranian individuals and companies
bne IntelliNews
The Trump administration announced new sanc- tions against groups, companies and individuals with ties to Iran, a day after certifying the Iranian government is complying with the November 2015 nuclear agreement.
Many media reports said that President Donald Trump had come close to killing US support for the nuclear deal but had been persuaded not to do so by senior members of his administration.
The US State and Treasury Departments designated 18 entities and individuals under the latest batch of sanctions for supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and its foreign- focused arm, the Quds Force, which is currently fighting in Iraq and Syria.
"The United States remains deeply concerned about Iran's malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, security and prosperity," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, pointing to Iran's support for US-designated militant groups, Shi’ite militias and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as its sentencing of US citizens.
The official also criticised Iran for continuing to develop its ballistic missile program, which the
US and other Western states say breaks United Nations resolutions.
Following the new sanctions, Iran's Foreign Ministry called the new move "contemptible and worthless" and promised to retaliate "soon" with reciprocal measures against American interests operating in Iran.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Za- rif, visiting New York, blasted US sanctions policy at a think tank event in the city saying: "I think people in Washington should get it through their minds that sanctions are a liability, not an asset," he said.
The groups and people supposedly linked to the IRGC were designated "for engaging, or attempt- ing to engage, in activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a risk of materially contributing to, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery," the US State Department wrote.
The 18 entities and individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control included "an Iran-based transnational organisation and three associated persons," as well as a Portuguese national who sold software to Iran from Lisbon.