President Barak Obama issued an executive order today that freezes the property of the Iranian government and any Iranian financial institution including the Central Bank of Iran.
The order is the first action the President has taken to implement comprehensive sanctions passed last year against the Central Bank of Iran. In accordance with this legislation the White House will be phasing-in sanctions against any third party that continues to do business with the Central Bank of Iran. The Central Bank is the venue through which Iran facilitates much of its international trade including its vaulted oil sales. In late January the United States also announced sanctions against Iran’s third largest bank.
The United States and its European allies have been ramping up sanctions against Iran in order to convince it to abandon its nuclear program, which the West argues is aimed to acquiring nuclear weapons, a charge that Iranian officials have continued to deny. The Western nations have also been actively trying to persuade Asian nations-particularly China, India, Japan and South Korea- to reduce their consumption of Iranian oil.
The sanctions the President issued earlier today block any property or interest in property that the Iranian government or Central Bank holds in the United States or in U.S. businesses’ foreign operations. It also prohibits any U.S. person or entity from receiving or giving voluntary contributions to any of these Iranian parties.
In a statement released with the new executive order, President Obama said, “I have determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation, and the continuing and unacceptable risk posed to the international financial system by Iran's activities.”
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