US sanctions Khamenei, Iranian leadership, amid major push to gain international support for its Iran policy
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – The US issued new sanctions on Monday, targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and five senior Iranian officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In addition, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif is to be sanctioned later this week, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told journalists at the White House.
In announcing Monday’s sanctions, President Donald Trump noted that they follow “a series of aggressive behaviors by the Iranian regime in recent weeks,” including Thursday’s downing of a US drone.
Following that attack, Trump decided against a US military response, but on Saturday, he tweeted that “major” sanctions would be coming on Monday.
They were, indeed, announced on Monday. “The Supreme Leader of Iran is the one who ultimately is responsible for the hostile conduct of the regime,” Trump said, as he signed the executive order providing for the new penalties.
In addition, Mnuchin, noting that the US had already sanctioned Qasim Soleimani, head of the IRGC’s Qods Force, announced that sanctions would also be applied to three other IRGC officers: Alireza Tangsiri, head of the IRGC Navy, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, and Mohammed Pakpour, head of the IRGC’s Ground Forces.
Five heads of the IRGC’s Naval Districts were also sanctioned.
On Saturday, Trump appeared to say that stopping Tehran’s nuclear program was the sole US objective in regard to Iran, seeming to put him at odds with his own Secretary of State who has articulated a broader agenda.
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Trump’s statement on Monday, however, made clear that while US demands on Iran include the nuclear issue, they also encompass its ballistic missile program, support for terrorism, as well as what Trump described as Tehran’s “fueling of foreign conflicts and belligerent acts directed against the United States and its allies.”
The new sanctions come as three senior US officials are holding discussions in the Middle East, aimed at mobilizing international support for Washington’s policy on Iran in advance of the G-20 meeting on June 28 and 29 in Osaka, Japan, where Trump will hold further meetings dealing with Iran.
On Monday, White House National Security Advisor John Boltonwas in Jerusalem, where he met with Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, for discussions on “Ukraine, arms control, Venezuela, and other issues,” as Bolton tweeted.