On Tuesday the United States announced new sanctions against Iran to punish it for its ballistic missiles and “pernicious” military activities in the Middle East, a few hours after maintaining the international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The State Department has taken sanctions against 18 people and entities linked to the Iranian ballistic missile program and the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the elite army of the Islamic Republic.
White House officials said on Monday night that Washington was preparing additional sanctions against Tehran while preserving the Iranian nuclear agreement signed in Vienna on 14 July 2015.
“The United States remains deeply concerned about the pernicious activities of Iran in the Middle East that undermine the stability, security and prosperity of the region,” said US diplomatic spokesman Heather Nauert .
She denounced “Iran’s continued support for terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad that threaten Israel and stability in the Middle East.”
The State Department also blasted Shiite Iran for its “determined support” to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Houthis rebels in Yemen.
Finally, Washington has for many years condemned Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is banned by a UN Security Council resolution.
As a result, the State Department and the Treasury have taken targeted economic and legal sanctions against Iranian legal and natural persons, as the Donald Trump administration and Barack Obama administration had already done several times.
The Republican billionaire, who promised during his election campaign to “tear” the agreement on the Iranian nuclear, decided on Monday night to preserve it by continuing the lifting of sanctions related to nuclear.
Major success in Obama’s diplomacy and success of the international non-proliferation policy, the Iranian nuclear agreement, known as JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), was initialed with great fanfare on 14 July 2015 in Vienna By Iran and the major powers (United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany).
