US targets 70 Iranian financial institutions in latest sanctions round

More than 70 Iranian financial institutions have been targeted in the latest round of tough US sanctions in a bid to put the government under "unprecedented pressure".

Lenders including Bank Melli – Iran’s largest financial institution – will be affected by the sanctions aimed at banks the US claims are connected to international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and human rights abuses.

The US Treasury has also taken aim at Iran’s oil export sector and imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran Shippings Lines and the National Iranian Tanker Company.

All property of the sanctions targets based in the United States will be blocked and reported to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control following the announcement.

“The treasury’s imposition of unprecedented financial pressure on Iran should make clear to the Iranian regime that they will face mounting financial isolation and economic stagnation until they fundamentally change their destabilising behaviour,” said treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.

“Iran’s leaders must cease support for terrorism, stop proliferating ballistic missiles, end destructive regional activities, and abandon their nuclear ambitions immediately if they seek a path to sanctions relief.

“The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here. We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists.”

Crowds gathered in Tehran yesterday evening with chants of “death of America”, Reuters reported, as protestors marked the anniversary of the seizure of the US Embassy in the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the decision to impose sanctions.

The sanctions were sparked by the US’s decision to leave the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as part of a wider plan to force the country to cancel its nuclear programmes and end support for proxy forces in conflicts in the Middle East.