The United States on Friday imposed additional economic sanctions on Iran, targeting eight individuals and 17 Iranian entities in the wake of Tehran's missile attacks on Iraqi bases hosting U.S. troops earlier this week.
The eight individuals are senior Iranian officials responsible for the ballistic missile strikes, including Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij militia of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps., the Treasury Department said.
The targeted organizations consist of Iran's 13 largest steel and iron manufacturers as well as four firms in the country's aluminum and copper sectors.
"We will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit(s) that it will never have nuclear weapons," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House, while announcing the new measures alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The additional sanctions also designate one vessel and a network of three trading companies based in China and the Seychelles for their involvement in the transfer of Iranian metals products.
"The goal of our campaign is to deny (Iran's) regime the resources to conduct its destructive foreign policy," Pompeo said. "We want Iran to simply behave like a normal nation."
(Secretary of State Mike Pompeo)
[Getty/Kyodo]
In an executive order authorizing the sanctions, President Donald Trump said that "Iran continues to be the world's leading sponsor of terrorism" and the country "has threatened United States military assets and civilians."
It remains the U.S. policy to "deny Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon and intercontinental ballistic missiles," the president added.
Trump on Wednesday offered a restrained response to Iran's missile attacks targeting U.S.-led forces in Iraq, saying he does not intend to use military power but would impose additional economic sanctions on Tehran.
Iran carried out the missile attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq in apparent retaliation for the U.S. killing of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, with an airstrike in Baghdad.
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