U.S. imposes more sanctions on Iran over nuclear programs

The U.S. is issuing more than two dozen new sanctions on Iranian officials linked to developing Iran’s nuclear program, the State and Treasury Departments announced Friday.

The sanctions target 31 scientists, officials, and front companies connected to Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND.)

SPND has provided support to Iranian defense entities, according to the Treasury Department, and those sanctioned have played a “central role” in Iran’s prior nuclear weapons development efforts.

“By highlighting this is to continue to stigmatize SPND … and try to make it as unattractive as possible to be involved in that program,” a senior administration official told reporters.

Among those sanctioned was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who led Iran’s pre-2004 nuclear weapons program and established SPND in 2011, and the Shahid Karimi Group, which has conducted weapons systems, materials, and explosion research for SPND.

The latest move blocks U.S. assets to those sanctioned, and denies them access to the U.S. financial system. The sanctions make those targeted “radioactive internationally,” an official said, and explained there is a “very high bar” to be removed from the sanctions list. 

“The United States strongly condemns Iran’s efforts to maintain its band of former nuclear weapons researchers, preserve their work, and continue sensitive procurement activities,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said.

The announcement comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wraps up a five-day tour through the Middle East that included stops in Kuwait, Israel and Lebanon.

Speaking to press in Jerusalem Thursday, Mr. Pompeo told reporters, “The simple goal is to get Iran to behave like a normal nation … the same things we ask every nation in the world to do we’re asking of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the same day declared that Iran intends to boost the country’s defense power in the face of “our enemies’ pressure,” Reuters reported.

“We need to take Iran to a point that enemy understand that they cannot threaten Iran,” he added, “America’s sanctions will make Iran self-sufficient.”

President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and re-imposed sanctions eased under the deal. Other countries who signed the deal have tried to preserve it, and the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has said Tehran has abided by its commitments under the deal.