US HITS IRAN’S CONSTRUCTION SECTOR WITH NEW SANCTIONS

WASHINGTON:THE US on Thursday extended its sanctions on Iran by taking aim at its construction sector, which Washington linked to the country’s Revolutionary Guards.

The sanctions, it said, would also target “four strategic materials as being used in connection with Iran’s nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programmes”.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo imposed the sanctions after the construction sector was identified as “being controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

Iranian tensions with the US escalated sharply since President Donald Trump last year withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and began reimposing crippling unilateral sanctions.

Tehran has hit back by suspending its compliance with parts of the nuclear deal until sanctions relief is restored.

The latest sanctions “will help preserve oversight of Iran’s civil nuclear programme, reduce proliferation risks, constrain Iran’s ability to shorten its ‘breakout time’ to a nuclear weapon, and prevent the regime from reconstituting sites for proliferation-sensitive purposes”. Ortagus said.

In the past, Tehran has hit back three times with countermeasures in response to the US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal. In its latest move, it fired up advanced centrifuges to boost its enriched uranium stockpiles on September 7.