US Piles on Iranian Sanctions, This Time Targeting Steel

Precisely two weeks before he leaves office, United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed forward with his “Maximum Pressure” sanctions policy toward Iran, blacklisting a dozen companies in the steel and metal industry, and three foreign sales agents of a metals and mining group based in Iran. The White House also slapped sanctions on a Chinese carbon materials firm it says supplied products to steel companies in the Islamic Republic over the past year. “The Trump Administration remains committed to denying revenue flowing to the Iranian regime as it continues to sponsor terrorist groups, support oppressive regimes, and seek weapons of mass destruction,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Tuesday. Over the past few months, and increasingly since his loss in the November presidential elections, President Trump has cranked up the heat on Iranian individuals and entities linked with Tehran’s regime and its oil, banking and infrastructure sectors. The outgoing administration, which in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, has hoped to force Iran to the negotiating table and to sign an improved agreement.