U.S. in new bid to tighten economic noose around Iran

Islam Mohamed

The United States continues to crack down on the mullahs’ regime in Iran, which sponsors a large number of militias and terrorist organizations in the region.

Washington does this by tightening the economic noose around Tehran, in its bid to make it difficult for Iran to bankroll these terrorist organizations and militias.

Tehran has received new blows from the U.S. which imposed new sanctions on Iran. The new sanctions regime targets the Iranian oil sector.

The new sanctions come as Washington works to prevent Iran from maintaining its destabilizing activities in the region.

An office of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has started putting oil companies operating in Iran on its terrorism list against the background of their financial support to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpse.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement that Iranian oil companies had worked closely with a senior official of Quds Force.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tehran should rather use oil revenues in improving the living conditions of the Iranian people.

Instead, he said, it uses these revenues in offering financial support to the Revolutionary Guard Corpse.

Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said the Iranian oil sector uses oil money in bankrolling destabilizing efforts in the region.

The Iranian regime, he said, gives priority to supporting terrorist organizations and its nuclear program.

The Department of the Treasury said in a statement that the National Iranian Oil Company played an important role in executing oil deals whose returns were used in financing Quds Force.