American Studies

United States Raises New Sanctions On Iran

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accompanied by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, announces new sanctions against Iran.

On October 25^th 2007, The Bush administration announced sweeping new sanctions against Iran today – the harshest since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979 – charging anew that Tehran supports terrorism in the Middle East, exports missiles and is engaging in a nuclear build up. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, joined at a State Department news conference by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said the steps the Bush administration is taking against the Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks are designed, among other things, to punish Tehran for its support of terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East. The sanctions will cut off more than 20 Iranian entities, including individuals and companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Guards, from the American financial system and will likely have ripple effects throughout the international banking community. In addition, three major Iranian banks — Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat — and a number of top military officials were sanctioned. The U.S. action cited their support of terrorist groups and role in spreading ballistic missile technology.

IRGC called terrorist according to terrorists’ report by Bush administration!!!

IRGC business enterprises, ranging from construction and insurance to importing consumer goods and car parts, have flourished under hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to information supplied to The Washington Times by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The NCRI is an emigre group advocating the overthrow of the Islamist regime in Tehran, said in a study that the Revolutionary Guard Corps controls 30 percent of Iran's non-oil exports and more than half the country's imports, in addition to vast new contracts to develop Iran's oil and gas fields."Today, various executive and economic instruments of [the Iranian government] are practically controlled by the IRGC," NCRI foreign affairs spokesman Mohammad Mohaddessin said. The report said the IRGC operates more than 500 companies, with branch offices throughout the Middle East as well as Europe, East Asia, Africa and Latin America.

NCRI is official name of MKO (Mojahedin - e – Khalgh Organization) which had been announced as a terrorist group by USA officials before this, in addition its top rankers are declared as wanted by Interpol because of their brutality in Iraq and as War criminals.

So it’s up to any common sense whether it’s rational to depend on such a statements or not!!

BACKGROUND

United States have been raising numerous sanctions on Iran post Islamic Revolution in 1979. Which all have been initiated after Hostages Crisis in USA embassy in Tehran(1980) and failure of Ajax operation in Kennedy’s era. During 8-year Iran vs. Iraq war these sanctions where overt act, but in 1986 a Lebanese paper (Al-shar`e`) betrayed Irangate(Iran-Contra) during Reagan’s presidency, in which his administration was accused of selling guns to Iran even it was banned by law. This skirmish prolonged to 1996 when Republican Senator D'amato of New YorkIran, which now is called D'amato Act which asserts presented his plan to put further sanctions on. In 2002 President George W. Bush declared Iran, Iraq and North Korea as Axis of Evil in his 2002 State of Union.

The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) in 2006 is almost the last general sanction on Iran in its prologue it is read:

“No firms have been sanctioned under the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA). Set to expire in August 2006, bills in the 109th Congress, H.R. 282 (passed by the House on April 26, 2006), S. 333, and H.R. 6198 extended it and added provisions to apply it more strictly. The latter bill, (P.L. 109-293, signed September 30, 2006), extended it until December 31, 2011, changed its name from the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) to ISA by terminating application to Libya, and allows substantial Administration flexibility in applying the new provisions.’

And finally it’s the last one on 25^th October 2007 to put sanctions on Islamic Republic Guardians Corps (IRGC) and some other financial institutes in charge of preparing essential fund for developing WMDs and supporting so called Lebanese and Palestinian terrorist groups.

Attachments:

An overview of O.F.A.C. Regulations involving Sanctions against Iran

The Iran Sanctions Act (ISA)

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