US to green-light new Iran sanctions after Israel attack

WORLD  16 April 2024 - 16:32

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is preparing fresh sanctions for Iran, vowing that the US "will not hesitate" to inflict economic punishment in response to the Islamic Republic's unprecedented attack on Israel.

President Biden is urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exercise military restraint. But in the economic sphere, the administration is demonstrating a willingness to retaliate against Iran, Axios reports.

It's a subtle message to Israel that there is more than one way to harm the ruling regime in Tehran.

Yellen will press fellow finance ministers — visiting DC for the annual spring IMF meetings this week — to focus their governments on possible sanctions work with the US on coordinated actions.

"Treasury will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime's malign and destabilizing activity," Yellen is prepared to say during her opening remarks at a press conference.

"The attack by Iran and its proxies underscores the importance of Treasury's work to use our economic tools to counter Iran's malign activity," she will say, according to a copy of her remarks obtained by Axios.

The G7 is also considering sanctions with the goal of isolating Iran internationally and increasing economic pressure on the regime, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on April 15.

"We now have a unified alliance of partners," he said. "That wasn't Iran's intent."

Days after Hamas October 7 attack on Israel, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against Hamas leaders and financial facilitators.

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to check the aggression of Iran and Iranian-backed forces throughout the Middle East.

Biden's warning to Netanyahu to temper any possible Israeli counterattack against Iran was hit with a barrage of criticism, including from some Democrats.

Last September, Republicans pilloried the president for releasing some $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue as part of a hostage swap deal.

In January, after a pro-Iranian militia killed three US service members in Jordan, some GOP lawmakers called for attacks on targets inside of Iran.

Instead, Biden ordered strikes against Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria.

House Republicans have scheduled more than a dozen votes for this week on bills sanctioning Iran and its proxies in retaliation for last weekend's wide-ranging drone and missile attack on Israel.

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