US Imposes New Sanctions On Iran

The US government has imposed new sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program in response to the Iranian missile attack on Erbil last month and the Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia last week.

• The announcement of fresh Iran sanctions comes in the wake of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's MENA tour where he was pressured by representatives of the UAE and Israel to respond to Iranian regional hostility.
• Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: 'Deal or no deal, we will continue to work together and with other partners to counter Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region.'
• The new Iran sanctions are also another extension of goodwill to Saudi Arabia as the OPEC leader continues to cite a lack of US support for the Gulf coalition against the Houthi rebels. It is unlikely that the OPEC leader will make any move towards increased oil production without first achieving rapprochement with the US with whom relations have deteriorated significantly since Biden took the White House.
• The Treasury department statement says sanctions are in response to: 'Iranian enabled Houthi missile attack against a Saudi Aramco facility on March 25 as well as other missile attacks by Iranian proxies against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.'
• The episode shows that the US is still struggling to achieve a balance between the push to return Iran to JCPOA compliance and the push to appease the Gulf oil producers to cool global oil prices.
• Earlier today Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russia intends to increase its partnership with Iran in all areas during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian in China suggesting that Iran may be drifting away from a potential JCPOA deal.