US issues more Iran sanctions as Trump says strikes will resume
The sanctions are the latest to target Iran's weapons procurement networks.
WASHINGTON — As efforts to end the war with Iran stall, the Treasury Department on Wednesday announced a new round of sanctions targeting weapons procurement networks linked to the country’s military and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Among those designated are China- and Hong Kong-based individuals and companies that the Treasury Department said facilitated the procurement of weapons for the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Defense. Also hit with sanctions was a Hong Kong-based company allegedly operating within Iran’s clandestine banking network that attempted weapons procurement-related transactions.
"Treasury will not tolerate any support of the Iranian military," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement, pledging to continue "disrupting the foreign procurement networks that support the Iranian military’s efforts to acquire weapons."
The Treasury Department has stepped up its sanctions campaign against Iran in recent weeks, with targets including its largest cryptocurrency exchange and a network it said defrauded dozens of American technology companies.
Treasury warned in a press release on Wednesday that foreign companies or individuals supporting Iranian illicit commerce, including by supporting sanctioned Iranian airlines, are at risk of secondary sanctions. It also warned financial institutions against doing business with the “teapot” refineries in China that purchase Iranian oil.
The latest sanctions came after Iran and the United States exchanged strikes on Wednesday, a tit-for-tat triggered by Iran’s downing of a US military helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Oil prices hovered above $94 a barrel after Trump told reporters later on Wednesday that the US would resume strikes on Iran.
“We’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump said when asked about a Truth Social post hours earlier in which he warned Iran would “pay the price” for not swiftly reaching a deal with the United States.
"All they have to do is they have to start signing a paper," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
For weeks, Trump has claimed the negotiators are close to an interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and begin formal talks on Iran’s nuclear program. But a number of thorny issues have yet to be resolved, including the potential release of Iran’s frozen assets and sanctions relief.
“We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers,” Trump said.
Iran possesses about 970 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% purity that, if further enriched, is enough for 10 nuclear weapons, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. On Wednesday, the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors passed a US-backed resolution requiring Iran to grant inspectors access to its nuclear sites and provide information about its stockpile of enriched uranium.
