US Targets Iran Construction Sector with New Sanctions

The United States on Thursday extended its sanctions on Iran by taking aim at its construction sector, which Washington linked to the country's Revolutionary Guards.

The sanctions, it said, would also target "four strategic materials as being used in connection with Iran's nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo imposed the sanctions after the construction sector was identified as "being controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)," spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

Iranian tensions with the United States have escalated sharply since US President Donald Trump last year withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and began reimposing crippling unilateral sanctions.

Tehran has hit back by suspending its compliance with parts of the nuclear deal until sanctions relief is restored.

The latest sanctions "will help preserve oversight of Iran's civil nuclear program, reduce proliferation risks, constrain Iran's ability to shorten its 'breakout time' to a nuclear weapon, and prevent the regime from reconstituting sites for proliferation-sensitive purposes," Ortagus said.

Just Tuesday, the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), elected Argentina's Rafael Grossi as its new head.

The IAEA is tasked with monitoring Iran's nuclear activities to ensure they abide by the terms of the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The deal has become more shaky since the US pullout. However its European parties have repeatedly said they are committed to saving the accord, but their efforts have so far borne little fruit.

The decision to continue with restrictions on Iran's nuclear program gives the United States additional authority "to prevent Iran from acquiring strategic materials for the IRGC, its construction sector, and its proliferation programs," Ortagus said.

Tehran has hit back three times with countermeasures in response to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

On July 1, Iran said it had increased its stockpile of enriched uranium to beyond a 300-kilogramme maximum set by the deal, and a week later it announced it had exceeded a 3.67-percent cap on the purity of its uranium stocks.

In its latest move it fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles on September 7.

Photo: IRNA

India Has Ended Iranian Oil Imports: Envoy

India has ended all imports of oil from Iran, its ambassador in Washington said Wednesday, becoming the latest country to grudgingly comply with threatened US sanctions.

India had already sharply decreased its imports from Iran and bought one million tons of crude in April, the last month before Washington stepped up its pressure campaign against Tehran and ended all exemptions to sanctions, Ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

"That's it. After that we haven't imported any," Shringla told reporters during a briefing on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election victory.

Shringla said that energy-hungry India has also ended all imports from Venezuela because it considered itself a partner of the United States—but said the shift had caused pain at home, with Iran formerly supplying 10 percent of India's oil needs.

Calling Iran "an extended neighbor" of India with longstanding cultural links, Shringla declined to say if New Delhi shared President Donald Trump's concerns about Tehran.

“This is an issue that has to be dealt with, really, between the United States and Iran. We are only, in many senses, looking at it as a third party," Shringla said.

But he added: "We would not like to see a move towards any escalation in any way in that area, for the simple reason that we depend very heavily on stability in that part of the world."

Trump last year pulled out of a multinational pact under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear work in return for promises of sanctions relief.

The Trump administration has instead ramped up economic pressure on Iran and recently deployed military assets including an aircraft carrier strike group to the area.

The United States as of May 2 has ended exemptions it had given to eight governments from its unilateral order to stop buying Iranian oil.

Turkey, which enjoyed a waiver and vocally disagreed with the US policy, has also stopped importing oil from Iran, a Turkish official said Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus welcomed the news from Turkey.

"We want the whole world to comply with these sanctions, and we're grateful for our partners and allies that are respecting them," she told reporters.

The Indian ambassador, however, voiced confidence that US sanctions would not affect its partnership in developing Iran's Chabahar port.  

India wants to use the port to ship supplies into Afghanistan in a detour from its arch-rival Pakistan, which historically backed the Taliban. 

"I think it is in the interest of both our countries and all others concerned to ensure that that lifeline continues for the people of Afghanistan," Shringla said.

Photo: IRNA