The US Treasury announced new sanctions on eighteen more Iranian banks on Thursday, in order to, let me quote, stop illicit access to US dollars. The crippling sanctions were announced on the US Treasury official website; basically, Iran’s entire financial system was blacklisted in the aftermath of the fresh sanctions, as Donald Trump’s administration continues the policy of applying maximum pressure on the Ayatollah regime.
Last month, the White House was reportedly contemplating aggressive sanctions on Iran’s financial system, looking to basically disconnect Iranian banks from the outside world.
The latest sanctions are the final nail in the coffin so to speak, as the Trump administration is literally blacklisting Iran’s entire financial system from conducting business with foreign banks/entities. On Thursday, US Treasury announced:
“As part of this action, OFAC sanctioned sixteen Iranian banks for operating in Iran’s financial sector and one bank for being owned or controlled by a sanctioned Iranian bankAdditionally, today’s action includes the designation of an Iranian military-affiliated bank under Treasury’s counter-proliferation authority.”
“Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs”
The Treasury mentioned that banks will only be allowed to proceed with humanitarian transactions to support the Iranian people.
Hekmat Iranian Bank is among the 18 banks sanctioned on Thursday, a bank that is said to be the key player servicing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Not everybody is happy with the measures, obviously:
The US is doing everything it can to suffocate and crush the people of Iran. By imposing these sanctions, the US is cutting off Iranians from food and medicine.
But it’s the Iranians who are the monsters bent on destruction and death, right? pic.twitter.com/nciSySVAml
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) October 8, 2020
A number of EU countries warned that US led actions against Iran are taking the country to the brink of economic collapse, and those who will suffer the most will be the Iranian people, while the Ayatollah regime will survive unscathed.
It is also possible that the new sanctions are nothing more than a pre-election foreign policy scheme, as President Donald Trump tries to appear tough on Iran, while Biden has said it would reverse the actual administration’s punitive policies if he gets elected.