WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States, Britain and Canada yesterday announced new sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors, steps analysts said may raise pressure on Tehran but were unlikely to halt its nuclear programme.
The United States named Iran as an area of “primary money laundering concern,” a step designed to dissuade non-US banks from dealing with it; blacklisted 11 entities suspected of aiding its nuclear programs; and expanded sanctions to target companies that aid its oil and petrochemical industries.
The United States stopped short, however, of targeting Iran’s central bank, a step that could have cut it off from the global financial system, sent oil prices skyrocketing and jeopardized US and European economic recovery.
In a coordinated action, Britain ordered all British financial institutions to stop doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Iranian central bank. A source familiar with the sanctions said the steps would not directly target trade in Iranian oil.
Canada said it would ban the export of all goods used in Iran’s petrochemical, oil and gas industry and “block virtually all transactions with Iran,” including with its central bank, with an exception for Iranian-Canadians to send money home.
While not taking concrete actions, France urged European Union and other nations to immediately freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank and to suspend purchases of Iranian oil, steps it called “sanctions on an unprecedented scale.” The series of announcements were in response to a Nov 8 International Atomic Energy Agency report that presented intelligence suggesting Iran had worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be secretly carrying out related research.
That report, calls by US lawmakers to sanction Iran’s cental bank and media speculation about a possible Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites have pushed the Obama administration to seek tougher sanctions against Tehran.
