U.S. announces new Iran sanctions

The Obama administration announced new Iran sanctions.

The sanctions, announced Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, are the first new U.S. sanctions since last week’s U.N. Security Council resolution expanding international sanctions.

However, the new U.S. sanctions—targeting banks, shippers and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps—do not derive from the Security Council sanctions, and are based instead on existing U.S. presidential executive orders mandating sanctions against entities that facililtate Iran’s acquisitions of weapons.

The IRGC, which enforces the Iranian government’s repressive policies and which is believed to be behind Iran’s suspected nuclear program, is a major target, said Stuart Levey, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“It is our view that no IRGC entity should have any place in the world’s financial system,” Levey told reporters in a briefing after the announcement.

Geithner said the United States would in the coming weeks be coordinating with other nations to further squeeze Iran under the new Security Council resolution, which enhance trade restrictions.

To that end, the Obama administration has named a senior State Department official, Bob Einhorn, to promote the implementation of the U.N. sanctions.