HITTING BACK

Trump Administration Slaps Iran With New Sanctions

After Iran’s missile attacks on two bases in Iraq with U.S. forces.

The Trump administration slapped Iran with additional sanctions on Friday, following attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq this week. In a Friday press conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the new sanctions, which target “any individual owning, operating, trading with or assisting sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles and mining,” Axios reported. The sanctions will specifically target 17 Iranian metal producers and mining companies—along with entities based in China and Seychelles—and eight senior Iranian officers involved in “destabilizing activities” as well as the Tuesday ballistic missile attack.

“As long as Iran’s outlaw ways continue, we will continue to impose sanctions,” Pompeo said on Friday. The new, widely anticipated sanctions come days after Iran fired missiles at two Iraqi bases that housed U.S. forces—though no Americans or Iraqis were killed in the attack. Iran’s missile attack was made in response to an American airstrike in Baghdad that killed Iran’s top military leader, Qasem Soleimani. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump alluded to the new sanctions, stating that the U.S. will “immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime.”