President Trump’s team imposed sanctions on 18 Iranian entities and individuals on Tuesday, as the administration looks to punish an array of aggressive actions by the regime beyond the scope of the recently-negotiated nuclear deal.
“Iran’s continued malign activities outside the nuclear issue undermine the positive contributions to regional and international peace and security that the deal was supposed to provide,” State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said Tuesday.
Iran “continues to detain U.S. citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related charges,” Nauert said, while contributing to the violence in the Yemeni and Syrian civil wars. The Syria conflict in particular could enhance the regime’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as it funnels weapons to Hezbollah, a terrorist group operating in Lebanon that has clashed with Israel. Such activities prompted some Republicans to ask Trump to scrap the nuclear deal entirely, but the administration took more provisional steps.
“The Administration is continuing to conduct a full review of U.S. policy toward Iran,” Nauert said. “During the course of this review, the United States will continue to aggressively counter Iran’s malign activities in the region.”
To that end, the administration unveiled sanctions that crack down on the IRGC, ballistic missile development and the procurement of other military equipment for the regime. The State Department in particular targeted IRGC entities working to research and test ballistic missile technology. The Treasury Department unveiled sanctions designed to hamper the IRGC’s efforts to acquire military tech such as drones or fast attack boats, which have been used for aggressive behavior in the Persian Gulf. “[Treasury] also designated two Iranian businessmen and associated entities who orchestrated the theft of U.S. and western software programs which, at times, were sold to the Government of Iran,” Nauert noted.
Iran’s human rights abuses did not escape attention, particularly the regime’s lack of religious freedom and support for human trafficking. “Notably, Iran also coerces Afghan refugees into participating in combat in Syria, deporting those who refuse to do so, and it supports militias fighting in Iraq that recruited and used child soldiers,” according to Nauert. “These abhorrent abuses only fuel conflict throughout the Middle East.”
Those sanctions, particularly if they foreshadow additional action, might alleviate the concerns of Iran hawks who believe the regime has expanded its efforts in those sectors since the striking of the deal.
“It is the interest of the Iranians to keep the agreement because that will allow them to change the Middle-East and to be ready after the period of the agreement to go nuclear,” Yaakov Armidor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser from 2011 to 2013, told reporters Monday during a conference call hosted by The Israel Project. “They are in a better position to deal with any kind of new wave of sanctions. The result of this agreement will be devastating for the Middle East, not just for Israel.”
With such concerns in mind, a group of senators pushed for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to declare Iran non-compliant with the nuclear deal, a finding that would have set the stage for expedited consideration of sanctions. The administration declined to make that announcement, but Tuesday’s sanctions announcement suggests an appetite for the kind of non-nuclear sanctions that passed the Senate with overwhelming support.
“The Administration is continuing to conduct a full review of U.S. policy toward Iran,” Nauert said. “During the course of this review, the United States will continue to aggressively counter Iran’s malign activities in the region. … The United States will continue to use sanctions to target those who lend support to Iran’s destabilizing behavior and above all, the United States will never allow the regime in Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
