April 17, 2024 (EIRNS)—White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced yesterday that new sanctions would be forthcoming against Iran, not only from the U.S. but also the G7 and the EU as well. “Following Iran’s unprecedented air attack against Israel, President Biden is coordinating with allies and partners, including the G7, and with bipartisan leaders in Congress, on a comprehensive response,” he said in a statement issued by the White House. “In the coming days, the United States will impose new sanctions targeting Iran, including its missile and drone program as well as new sanctions against entities supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran’s Defense Ministry. We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions.”
Sullivan then turned to the administration’s efforts to get something resembling a NATO for the Middle East in place. “In addition, we continue to work through the Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command to further strengthen and expand the successful integration of air and missile defense and early warning systems across the Middle East to further erode the effectiveness of Iran’s missile and UAV capabilities.”
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. would work with allies to pass sanctions in the coming days to keep disrupting Iran’s “malign and destabilizing activity,” reported the Times of Israel. Not wanting to “preview our sanctions tools,” she said that “all options to disrupt terrorist financing of Iran continue to be on the table.” An unnamed Treasury official told media that the plan is to try to enlist China’s aid, along with G7 partners and other major global suppliers, to erode Iran’s ability to continue to export oil, and to get the microelectronics it needs to produce the drones it used to attack Israel and sells to Russia. Yellen is unhappy that, despite previous actions against Iran, the country is still exporting oil. “There may be more we can do,” she said. But President Joe Biden is reported to still be worried that increased sanctions on Iran’s oil exports could lead to a big spike in global oil prices.
