The United States announced this Friday, October 11, a series of sanctions targeting the Iranian petrochemical industry in “ response to the October 1 attack on Israel, the second direct attack this year “.
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Iran sending ballistic missiles to Israelon October 1, did not cause any deaths. The anti-aircraft defense intercepted most of the machines, and the Jewish state reported two minor injuries. But these strikes, in addition to adding tension to the Middle East where Israel is at war against Hamas and its allies, also lead to an American reaction this October 11. Washington has decided to sanction the Iranian oil sector.
The sanctions target the entire sector, according to a press release from the Treasury Department, but also around twenty ships as well as companies based abroad, all accused of being involved in the transport of Iranian oil and petrochemical materials. The companies targeted are mainly based in China, but two Emirati companies and one Liberian are also affected. Likewise, ship owners, based in Panama, Malaysia or the Marshall Islands in particular, are targeted.
This announcement “ has been coordinated with allies and partners, many of whom will announce their own measures in the coming days aimed at holding theIran responsible for his attack “, underlined Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. The latter had agreed, on October 2 during a telephone exchange with his G7 peers, to impose new sanctions against Tehran.
Asset freeze, trading ban…
For Washington, it is about increasing financial pressure on Iran and “ limit the regime’s ability to raise the revenue necessary to destabilize the region and attack the partners of the UNITED STATES “. “ Today’s sanctions target Iranian efforts to direct revenues generated by its energy industry to finance deadly and disruptive activities, with serious consequences for the region and the world “, justified Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, quoted in the press release.
The sanctions result in the freezing of assets held directly or indirectly by the targeted companies in the United States, as well as the ban on companies based in the United States, or American citizens, from trading with these sanctions targets, at the risk of be sanctioned in turn. They also, in fact, complicate the commercial exchanges of companies under sanction, by limiting their possibility of using the dollar in their transactions, at the risk of falling under American jurisdiction.
On October 1, Iran launched around 200 missiles against Israel, an attack presented as a response to the assassination of the leader of Palestinian Hamas in Tehran, blamed on Israel, and the leader of Lebanese Hezbollahas well as a general from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in an Israeli strike near Beirut. Israel has since vowed to retaliate, with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announcing on Wednesday that the attack will be ” deadly, precise and surprising “.
But Washington seeks to limit the importance of the Israeli response, the American president having said he was opposed to strikes which would target Iranian nuclear installations and advising against those against oil infrastructure.
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