U.S. Adds Its Own Sanctions on Iran

President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions on Iran that, for the first time, will bar from the American market foreign companies that work with Iranian businesses charged with aiding Tehran’s nuclear program and the suppression of democracy.

The law requires the Treasury Department to cut off from the U.S. financial system any foreign bank conducting transactions with Iranian entities blacklisted by the United Nations or the American government.

Those blacklists include some Iranian banks, Tehran’s energy sector, and the businesses of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Treasury said it has already started dispatching senior officials to Europe and Asia to outline to governments and executives how the new U.S. law could potentially freeze out companies.

The legislation also significantly limits the White House’s ability to grant waivers to allow certain foreign firms to continue to pursue investments of more than $20 million in Iran’s energy sector, the financial lifeline of the Islamic Republic.

WSJ