Treasury Dept Plans New Iran Sanctions Following Ballistic Missile Tests

The Wall Street Journal said Thursday the White House has delayed plans to slap new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program, amid fears it could jeopordize a hard-worn nuclear deal with Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered a speed-up in the production of defense missiles.

The new sanctions prepared by the Treasury Department could affect a number of individuals and global companies for their alleged role in supporting Iran’s missile program, a USA official said Wednesday.

Despite warnings from Iran that such action would defy the recently completed nuclear agreement, the U.S.is preparing a new round of sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile tests.

USA officials offered no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed after the decision was made Wednesday to delay them.

President Hassan Rouhani has denounced possible new United States sanctions on his country which could jeopardize a hard-won nuclear deal due to be finally implemented within weeks.

Almost a third of all oil traded by sea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been the scene of past confrontations between America and Iran, including a one-day naval battle in 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war.

“We will continue boosting its missile capabilities of the Islamic Republic within the framework of the government’s defense policy”.

He also said Iran stressed throughout the P5+1 nuclear negotiations that it would “never negotiate with anyone about its defense power, including the missile program, and would never accept any restriction in this field, emphasizing its entitlement to the legitimate right of defense”.

The actions angered the United States and a United Nations panel found earlier this month that the tests breached previous resolutions aimed at stopping the Islamic republic from developing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Iranian officials, for their part, say Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, views those measures as violating the nuclear accord.

The Obama administration contends that the sanctions would not be in violation of the nuclear agreement, which affords Iran relief from nuclear sanctions in exchange for reducing its stockpile of uranium, converting existing nuclear facilities and undergoing extensive monitoring of its nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which is supposed to add more crude output in 2016 after the lift of sanctions. Once it goes into effect, Iran is merely “called upon” not to carry out ballistic missile work that could deliver a nuclear warhead for up to eight years.

Tehran said it will not back down on munitions development.

In particular, the Treasury Department plans to sanction about a dozen companies and individuals in Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, reports CNN.