Sanctions against Iran have been extended for another year. Official notice of this to Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy signed by President Joe Biden on Friday, March 10, publishes website of the White House.
The President’s website reports that the head of state sent a notice to the Federal Register for publication stating that the state of emergency against Iran, declared on March 15, 1995, should remain in force after March 15, 2023.
It is noted that the United States National Emergency Act (50 USC 1622(d)) provides for the automatic termination of the state of emergency in the country if, within 90 days before the anniversary of its declaration, the President does not issue such a notice.
According to Biden, the actions and policies of the Iranian government continue to pose “an exceptional threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”
“Therefore, I determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12957 on Iran and to maintain comprehensive sanctions against Iran in response to this threat,” Biden was quoted in the document as saying.
Earlier, on January 31, it was reported that the US Department of Commerce included seven organizations from Iran – several enterprises of the aviation industry, as well as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces), in its black list for allegedly “assisting the Armed Forces of Russia and its military-industrial complex.
On January 6, Washington imposed sanctions on several Iranian citizens who are allegedly associated with the supply of UAVs for the needs of the Russian army. In addition, the US authorities imposed sanctions on the director of Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, “responsible for overseeing Iran’s ballistic missile program.”
Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly denied Western claims that Russia is supplying Iranian drones for use in Ukraine. Back on August 30, the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, called such reports a stuffing and stressed that the Russian army uses domestically produced drones.
Another package of sanctions was introduced in December 2022 as a sign of condemnation of the use of violence by the Iranian authorities against the population of the country. Then the United States demanded that Iranian officials be held accountable for egregious violations committed against Iranian citizens.
The US first imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran in 1979. Since then, the sanctions regime against this country has been adjusted. The reasons for the imposition of sanctions were called support for terrorism, violation of human rights, and the development of a nuclear missile program.
