U.S. slaps fresh sanctions on Iran following missile strikes

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The U.S. on Friday unveiled new sanctions on Iran, targeting the Islamic Republic in the wake of missile strikes on American bases in Iraq.

The penalties were announced at the White House by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and follow the U.S. killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iran’s subsequent strikes on two U.S. bases.

The sanctions target Iran’s metals industry and also the country’s construction, manufacturing, mining and textile sectors. In addition, eight senior Iranian officials are targeted, Mnuchin said. Read more about the penalties from the Treasury Department.

“We will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime” with the sanctions, Mnuchin said.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran appeared to be standing down from the conflict, but announced the fresh sanctions that same day. He said they would remain “until Iran changes its behavior.” Trump did not specify what sectors or individuals would be affected.

“We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation,” Pompeo told reporters.

The penalties unveiled Friday are the latest U.S. sanctions on Iran. Some of those on the country’s oil and banking sectors were restored in November 2018, as a follow up to Trump’s decision in May of that year to pull the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Trump on Wednesday urged other nations to break away from that agreement, which took sanctions off of Tehran in exchange for its commitment to curtail its nuclear plans.