U.S. Targets Iran’s Petrochemical Industry (original) (raw)

Middle East|U.S. Targets Iran’s Petrochemical Industry

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/01/world/middleeast/us-targets-irans-petrochemical-industry.html

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May 31, 2013

The Obama administration on Friday escalated efforts to isolate Iran economically, blacklisting Iranian companies in the petrochemical industry for the first time and punishing five businesses in four other countries for conspiring to evade American sanctions aimed at restricting Iranian oil sales and air transportation.

The new steps came a day after the administration issued sanctions against a top aide of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and more than 50 other Iranian officials for what it called their efforts to repress dissent and free speech in Iran, where presidential elections are scheduled in two weeks.

Under the increasingly strict sanctions on Iran, the United States freezes any American assets of blacklisted companies and individuals and bans them from doing business with any American companies or citizens. In addition, companies and individuals in other countries who help Iran evade sanctions can be cut off from the American financial system and face other restrictions.

“We are committed to intensifying the pressure against Iran, not only by adopting new sanctions, but also by actively enforcing our sanctions and preventing sanctions evasion,” David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department under secretary whose office oversees the sanctions effort, said in a statement. “Today’s actions take aim at revenues from Iran’s petrochemical sector, as well as deceptive schemes Iran has employed in an effort to evade sanctions on its oil sales and its airlines.”

The United States has never before aimed direct sanctions at Iran’s petrochemicals industry, which Treasury officials said had become an important source of revenue to the Iranian government as sales of oil — its most important export — have fallen sharply in the past few years because of the effects of other sanctions, including a European Union embargo.

“The administration is taking action today to target this revenue stream by both designating companies involved in transactions with the sector and identifying several petrochemical companies as subject to sanctions because they are controlled by the Iranian government,” the Treasury statement said.

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