US Jewish groups praise new measures
NEW YORK – American Jewish organizations applauded the Trump administration for on Friday imposing additional sanctions on Iran.
The US Treasury added 13 individuals and 12 entities to the list covered under its Iran sanctions authority, two days after the White House put Tehran “on notice” over a ballistic missile test. In a statement on its website, the US Treasury listed the sanctioned individuals and entities, some of which are based in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and China.
The move is the first against Tehran since President Donald Trump took office on January 20. The sanctions were similar to actions taken by the Obama administration that targeted Iran’s ballistic missile network.
“Nefarious Iranian behavior cannot go unchecked,” David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on Friday. “Rigorous monitoring of Iran’s compliance with the [2015 nuclear deal] and related international measures, such as the UN ban on ballistic missile tests, is imperative to successfully curtailing Iran’s threats to regional and global security.”
The Anti-Defamation League also welcomed the move and said the sanctions are a critical tool to “exert pressure on Tehran to address the full range of threats Iran poses to US interests and to stop its destabilizing aggression.”
“The Trump administration’s swift and targeted response today sends an important signal that the US remains, and will continue to be, serious about holding the regime in Tehran accountable for its behavior,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. “We hope others in the international community will follow suit and will refuse to allow Iran’s dangerous threats to be met with impunity.”
Trump tweeted early on Friday, “Iran is playing with fire” and “they don’t appreciate how kind president Obama was to them. Not me!”
Stephen Greenberg and Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said that, by imposing new sanctions, the Trump administration “took another step toward holding Iran accountable for its provocative and belligerent behavior which threatens Israel and other US allies in the region and vital US national security interests. We look forward to working with the administration and the bipartisan majority in Congress on appropriate and effective responses to Iran’s repeated provocations and belligerence.”