The Treasury Department announced sanctions on 18 Iranian banks Thursday as part of the United States’s “commitment to stop illicit access to U.S. dollars,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
“Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs. Today’s actions will continue to allow for humanitarian transactions to support the Iranian people,” he added.
The sanctions were authorized in an attempt to deny the Iranian government funds to fuel its “nuclear program, missile development, terrorism and terrorist proxy networks, and malign regional influence,” according to the press release.
The release noted that the sanctions will not affect “existing authorizations and exceptions for humanitarian trade, which remain in full force and effect” for the banks in question. The banks and individuals who continue to do business with the 18 banks after a 45-day “wind-down period” will also run the risk of secondary sanctions.
“Today’s action targets the Iranian regime and is not directed at the people of Iran. The U.S. government recognizes and understands the necessity for both commercial humanitarian exports and humanitarian transactions to access Iran’s banking system, and this action does not interfere with that ability,” the press release stated.
The sanctions follow Secretary of State Mike Pompeo initiating the snapback of international sanctions on Iran that were established during the Iran nuclear deal, which the U.S. walked away from under the Trump administration. European allies objected that the U.S. no longer had the authority to reimplement the sanctions.
A spokesperson for the Treasury Department told the Washington Examiner that the sanctions are “part of our continued maximum pressure campaign. We will not allow the Iranian regime to have tools that it can use to source revenue and fund a malign and destabilizing agenda. The regime does not serve the interests of the Iranian people, and our action helps protect the global financial system from abuse by the regime.”
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Despite the Treasury Department’s statement on continued humanitarian aid, some are concerned that amid a global pandemic, the sanctions will have unintended consequences for Iranians who are already suffering.
“It’s going to make it even harder for Iran to get a hold of food and medicine, unless the Europeans do something gutsy,” Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told CNN. “It’s going to hurt a lot more people. It certainly will bring a lot of people to their knees, but it will not bring down the Islamic Republic, it will just intensify their hatred for the United States.”
The Treasury spokesperson said, “It’s our longstanding policy that the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical devices to Iran by both U.S. and non-U.S. persons is generally permitted. This action does not change that, including with respect to the banks we are sanctioning today, and we have issued extensive guidance concurrently with this action to limit the impact of these sanctions on humanitarian trade.”
