The United States and European allies joined together on Thursday to impose new sanctions on Iranian military leaders and weapon makers, seeking to punish Iran for its missile and drone attack on Israel last weekend, while imploring Israel not to retaliate so strongly as to risk a wider war.
White House officials said the sanctions targeted leaders and entities connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s Defense Ministry and the Iranian government’s missile and drone programs. The sanctions also seek to block exports by Iran’s steel industry that bring Tehran billions of dollars in revenue, they said.
“I’ve directed my team, including the Department of the Treasury, to continue to impose sanctions that further degrade Iran’s military industries,” President Biden said in a statement. “Let it be clear to all those who enable or support Iran’s attacks: The United States is committed to Israel’s security.”
Britain said it had imposed sanctions on seven people and six entities linked to Iran’s regional military activity and its attack on Israel, which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a “reckless act and a dangerous escalation.”
“These sanctions — announced with the U.S. — show we unequivocally condemn this behavior, and they will further limit Iran’s ability to destabilize the region,” Mr. Sunak said in a statement.
Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said that European Union sanctions would be imposed on Iran’s drone and missile programs in the coming days, in an effort to “isolate Iran.”
Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, welcomed the new sanctions.
“This is our opportunity to form a global front and a regional coalition against Iran, together with the US, the EU, and moderate Arab states, to stop the serpent’s head that threatens global stability,” Mr. Katz wrote on social media. “We must stop Iran now before it’s too late.”
But it was far from clear whether the new restrictions would curb military activity by Iran, which has spent decades finding ways to skirt hundreds of Western sanctions, in part through illicit shipments of oil. It was also far from clear that the sanctions would persuade Israel not to strike Iran in retaliation for the attack on Saturday night.
Last October, the Biden administration announced similar sanctions on the Iranian drone and missile programs, which officials said at the time were aimed at frustrating Iran’s ability to produce just the kinds of weapons that it used to strike Israel.
Iran said it had launched the attack in response to an April 1 airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed at least three senior Iranian commanders and four other officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East.
Israel’s war cabinet has met several times since the attack to discuss when and how to respond to the barrage of more than 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, almost all of which were intercepted by the warplanes and air defenses of Israel, the United States, Britain, France and Jordan.
The United States, Britain, Germany and other countries have urged Israel to show restraint as they seek to prevent an all-out war between Iran and Israel. U.S. officials have told their Israeli counterparts to see the successful defense against Iran’s attack as a victory — proof of Israel’s superiority and Iran’s impotence.
On Thursday, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, also sought to calm tensions in the region.
“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake could lead to the unthinkable: a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved and the rest of the world,” Mr. Guterres told the U.N. Security Council. “The moment of maximum peril must be a time for maximum restraint.”
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will not bow to external pressure. He declared on Wednesday, after meeting with the British and German foreign ministers, that Israel will “do everything necessary to defend itself” and that “we will make our own decisions.”
Iranian leaders have vowed in recent days to strike back even more forcefully at Israel if it attacks Iran. Maj. Gen. Ahmad Haghtalab, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander in charge of protecting Iran’s nuclear sites, said on Thursday that if Israel were to hit one of those sites, “the hands are on the trigger” to strike Israeli nuclear facilities, according to Iranian state news media.
The rising tensions between Israel and Iran came as the U.N. Security Council weighed on Thursday whether to back a Palestinian bid to become a full-member state of the United Nations.
The United States vetoed the measure, casting the only vote against it in the 15-member Council. Twelve nations voted in favor, and two abstained.
A “no” by any of the five permanent members stops any Security Council action. Among those five, France, Russia and China voted for the resolution to elevate the Palestinians’ status, and Britain abstained.
At the United Nations, Palestine is currently granted the lesser status of observer, like the Holy See.
But with more than 33,000 Palestinians killed in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, according to local health officials, and many more left homeless and suffering from extreme hunger, some argue that U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state is long overdue. The push for recognition also comes as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s government was strongly opposed to the U.N. resolution, with its foreign minister, Israel Katz, calling it a “shameful proposal.”
A Palestinian representative, Ziad Abu Amr, speaking to the Security Council before the vote, challenged the United States on Thursday not to block the resolution.
“How could granting the State of Palestine full membership of the United Nations — similar to other countries around the world — how could this damage the prospects of peace between Palestinians and Israelis?” he said. “How could this recognition and this membership harm international peace and security?”
But the Biden administration has argued consistently that a Palestinian state must result from a negotiated settlement involving Israel.
“This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” said Robert A. Wood, the U.S. representative at the Security Council meeting on Thursday.
In addition, he said, the Palestinian Authority is not ready for statehood — in part because it has no control over Gaza, where Hamas has held sway for years.
Critics argue that Israeli encroachment on West Bank land and other actions have made a prospective Palestinian state increasingly untenable.
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