The US will reportedly place sanctions on more than two dozen people and entities tied to Iran’s nuclear and conventional weapons program, according to a senior US official who claimed the Iranians will have enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon by the end of the year.
Washington has been pushing to reapply international sanctions lifted from Iran under the terms of an unraveling multinational 2015 nuclear agreement, but so far has struggled to find support for the measures at the United Nations.
The US official, who spoke to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said among those who will be targeted are members of a procurement network supplying dual-use military items for the Iranian missile program and officials in the country’s ballistic missile program.
In addition to the restrictions placed on the targets of the sanctions, the measures will also affect any companies in Europe, Russia, or China that violate the sanctions, Reuters reported.
The sanctions will be announced Monday alongside a US executive order aimed at blocking conventional arms trade with Iran in the wake of the UN’s recent rejection of a US bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran, included in the nuclear deal, that is set to expire on October 18.
“Iran is clearly doing everything it can to keep in existence a virtual turnkey capability to get back into the weaponization business at a moment’s notice should it choose to do so,” said the official.
“Because of Iran’s provocative nuclear escalation, it could have sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon by the end of this year,” he said without providing more information. The official said the assessment was based on “the totality” of information available to Washington, including from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency”
He also said that Iran and North Korea have resumed their cooperation on long-range missile projects.
A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the UN dismissed the approaching US sanctions as propaganda.
“The US’ ‘maximum pressure’ show, which includes new propaganda measures almost every week, has clearly failed miserably, and announcing new measures will not change this fact,” mission spokesman Alireza Miryousefi told Reuters via email.
“The entire world understands that these are a part of [the] next US election campaign, and they are ignoring the US’ preposterous claims at the UN today. It will only make [the] US more isolated in world affairs,” he said.
The White House declined to comment on the report.
The executive order on arms sales will have a broad definition of conventional weapons to mean any item with military potential, the US official said.
The Reuters report came as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations will not support reimposing sanctions on Iran as demanded by the US, until he gets a unlikely green light from the Security Council.
The UN chief said in a letter to the council president obtained Sunday by The Associated Press that “there would appear to be uncertainty” on whether or not US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo triggered the “snapback” mechanism in the Security Council resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers. READ MORE
