Iran’s bank hit by more sanctions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday announced a new round of sanctions against Iran’s national bank, escalating economic pressure on the country as the president’s national security advisers review a list of targets for a potential strike in retaliation for recent attacks on Saudi Arabian oil fields.
“It’s going to hell,” Trump said of Iran’s economy, speaking in the Oval Office where he was hosting the Australian prime minister. “They’re practically broke. They are broke.”
The sanctions come as Trump’s fourth national security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien.
The latest sanctions affect the Central Bank of Iran and the National Development Fund of Iran, “the last remaining source of funds,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who joined Trump in the Oval Office.
“This is very big,” Mnuchin said. “We’ve now cut off all source of funds to Iran.”
Last year, the United States took the rare step to designate the head of the central bank, Valiollah Seif, as a global terrorist, and accused the bank of funneling money to Hezbollah.
While the Trump administration emphasized the severity of the latest sanctions, it was not clear that they would have any real impact on Iran’s behavior or do much additional damage to its economy. In addition to sanctioning Seif last year, the Treasury Department reimposed sanctions related to purchases of U.S. dollars by the Iranian government, which had been suspended as part an international nuclear accord.
The new sanctions to the central bank are an additional layer over what the United States has already levied, said Ryan Fayhee, a partner at Hughes Hubbard and Reed who heads the firm’s sanctions, export controls and anti-money laundering practice. The impact of the new sanctions on the development fund, Fayhee said, depends on how active or well-funded it is. If the fund has access to oil revenues, he said, the sanctions could have an impact. He said the extent of central bank interest and property in the United States is not known.