US imposes new sanctions on Iran, but waves others

Sale of raw and semifinished metals will be sanctionable

The United States said on Thursday it had imposed sanctions on the Iranian construction sector and trade in four materials used in its military or nuclear programmes, even as it waived sanctions to let foreign firms continue non-proliferation work in Iran.

The State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had determined Iran’s construction sector was controlled directly or indirectly by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which Washington regards as a foreign terrorist organization.

As a result, the sale of raw and semi-finished metals, graphite, coal, and software for integrating industrial purposes will be sanctionable if the materials are to be used in Iran’s construction sector, the department said in a fact sheet.

In a second determination, Pompeo identified four “strategic materials” as being used in connection with nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programmes, making trade in them subject to sanctions.

In a separate statement, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said the determinations gave Washington the ability “to prevent Iran from acquiring strategic materials for the IRGC, its construction sector, and its proliferation programs.”

The US has allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to continue work at Iranian nuclear facilities to make it harder for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

The US would let the work go forward by issuing waivers to sanctions that bar non-US firms from dealing with the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI).