WASHINGTON — President Biden announced sanctions against Iranian steel and drone companies as well as 16 individuals Thursday in response to last weekend’s aerial attack by Tehran against Israel — after years of similar Iranian drones pummeling Ukraine and without clamping down on Iran’s lucrative oil exports.
Leading Republicans and Democrats in Congress have asked Biden to consider going after Iranian petroleum revenue in response to Tehran’s support of Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, but the latest announcement does not address the country’s top export, on which Biden previously eased sanctions.
Higher US gas prices could undermine Biden’s bid for a second term in November.
“Less than a week ago, Iran launched one of the largest missile and drone attacks the world has ever seen against Israel,” the president, 81, said in a statement. “Together with our allies and partners, the United States defended Israel. We helped defeat this attack. And today, we are holding Iran accountable—imposing new sanctions and export controls on Iran.”
Biden said that the new sanctions “target leaders and entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s Defense Ministry, and the Iranian government’s missile and drone program that enabled this brazen assault.”
Israeli officials say that nobody was killed by Iran’s barrage of 320 missiles and drones Sunday morning local time, but a Bedouin Arab girl was seriously injured. The US and Israeli militaries shot down most of the projectiles before they could reach their targets.
US sanctions can freeze international bank accounts and make financial transactions very difficult, preventing targets from easily doing business directly.
The Treasury Department said the new sanctions include “16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs [drones], which were used in the April 13 attack.”
The Biden administration also is targeting Iranian steel exports — a day after Biden asked US Trade Representative Katherine Tai to consider adding a new 15% tariff on Chinese steel as he visited swing-state Pennsylvania.
Thursday’s sanctions target “five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products.”
The department said “Iran’s metals sector generates the equivalent of several billion dollars in revenue annually, with the majority coming from steel exports.”
The US government also sanctioned three subsidiaries of carmaker Bahman Group that allegedly “have continued to materially support the IRGC and other entities designated pursuant to counterterrorism authorities, including Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).”
Biden has copped bipartisan criticism for easing up on former President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” of sanctions against Iran, which sought to deprive Tehran of funds for nuclear technology and armed proxies in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Yemen.
A group of 62 House members — including prominent Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California — asked Biden in January to fully enforce US sanctions on Iranian oil sales after those exports surged, now roughly doubling Iran’s annual export levels in 2019 and 2020.
“Iran now exports more than 1.4 million barrels of crude oil daily, over 80% of which goes to China. From February 2021 to October 2023, the regime has taken at least $88 billion from these illicit oil exports,” wrote the group.
“Iran is deriving significant economic benefits from pervasive sanctions evasion, with Iran’s annual economic growth increasing by more than four percent and net foreign currency reserves up by 45 percent.”
Republicans in Congress separately have asked Biden to cancel a sanctions waiver allowing Iraq to pay Iran for electricity, which they estimate will allow Iran access to $10 billion.
Biden in September agreed to release $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil proceeds held by South Korea in exchange for the release from prison of five Iranian-Americans. The funds are held by Qatar for Iran to purchase items such as food and medicine, but the US and Qatar reportedly reached a “quiet agreement” in October to pause distribution and the current status of the funds is unclear.
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