The United States has announced new sanctions on Iran targeting its currency and automobile industry, in a step which aimed at further weaken its economy and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The executive orders in this regard were issued by the US President, Barack Obama.
“This new action targets Iran’s currency, the rial, by authorising the imposition of sanctions on foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate significant transactions for the purchase or sale of the Iranian rial, or that maintain significant accounts outside Iran denominated in the Iranian rial,” the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, said yesterday.
“While the rial has lost half of its value since the beginning of 2012 as a result of our comprehensive sanctions, this is the first time that trade in the rial has been targeted directly for sanctions,” he said.
The executive order authorises the imposition of new sanctions against those who knowingly engage in significant financial or other transactions for the sale, supply, or transfer to Iran of significant goods or services used in connection with Iran’s automotive sector.
Similar sanctions were earlier imposed on Iran’s shipping, shipbuilding, and energy sectors.
Preventive action
Later addressing a meeting of the American Jewish Community Global Forum, US Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated that America would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
“The United States will prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. It is not prevention. It is no weapon, no containment; prevention,” he said.
Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the decision of the Obama Administration in this regard.
“I welcome these sanctions against Iran’s currency and the blacklisting of Iran’s automotive sector, which the House Foreign Affairs Committee targeted in the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act passed two weeks ago. As the centrifuges in Iran keep spinning, we need more sanctions and more pressure on Tehran,” Royce said in a statement.
Two weeks ago, the Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously passed H R 850, the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act, which broadens economic sanctions and strengthens human rights sanctions.