The Iranians said sanctions relief is a ‘core issue’ for them as Tehran negotiates a potential nuclear deal with the United States
Iranian state-controlled media on Friday lashed out at the Trump administration’s latest round of sanctions, suggesting the move demonstrates that President Donald Trump is not sufficiently committed to a nuclear deal.
“Despite earlier Iranian authorities’ warnings that the sanctions show that Washington is not serious in the talks to resolve Western states’ alleged concerns over the Iranian nuclear issue in exchange for the removal of sanctions, the US Treasury announced new sanctions on dozens of Iranian individuals and entities,” Mehr News Agency wrote on Friday.
The fresh sanctions, which target a multibillion-dollar Iranian money laundering network, are some of the furthest-reaching and most substantial to date. Thirty-five entities from Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates appear on the list for laundering “billions of dollars through Iranian exchange houses and foreign front companies to sustain Tehran’s campaigns of terror,” according to the State Department.
They primarily center around Iranian brothers Mansour, Nasser, and Fazlolah Zarringhalam, who have leveraged an international network of money launderers to feed Tehran’s illicit “shadow banking” system.
“The regime leverages this network to evade sanctions and move money from its oil and petrochemical sales, which help the regime fund its nuclear and missile programs and support its terrorist proxies,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.
The United States announced the measures just days after Iran rejected the Trump administration’s offer for a revamped nuclear deal that would have eventually zeroed out its uranium enrichment capabilities. Tehran labeled the deal a non-starter, with the country’s supreme leader saying that President Donald Trump “can not do a damn thing” about Iran’s contested enrichment program.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, blasted the American nuclear proposal for failing to guarantee full-scale sanctions relief in a Thursday interview.
“The U.S. proposal does not even mention sanctions relief, which is a core issue for us,” Shamkhani said, describing the latest draft deal as “unprofessional.” Iran, he added, is “preparing a new draft” that will address sanctions relief and preserve Tehran’s right to enrich uranium.
The sanctions—which could increase pressure on Iran to accept America’s terms for a deal or push it away from the negotiating table—also came just days after the Wall Street Journal noted that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued an internal directive “to pause all new sanctions activity toward Iran” amid diplomatic talks with Tehran.
The White House did not deny the claim, saying that “any new decisions with regard to sanctions will be announced by the White House or relevant agencies within the administration.” It appears, however, that the policy is not in place, with both the State and Treasury Departments saying that they will not shy away from further action to cripple Iran’s access to much-needed cash.
“The new policy went out to top officials at the National Security Council and Treasury Department, and then to the State Department,” according to the Journal. “Relevant officials working on the Middle East were looped in, but the directive had to spread much further.”
The White House did not deny the report, saying that “any new decisions with regard to sanctions will be announced by the White House or relevant agencies within the administration.” But it appears that policy either never existed or is no longer in place in light of Friday’s massive designations.
Both the State and Treasury Departments said Friday that they will not shy away from further action to cripple Iran’s access to much-needed cash.
“The United States will continue to deny Iran access to financial networks and the global banking system as long as Iran continues its destabilizing activities,” spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “We will promote accountability for those who seek to undermine international peace and security.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made a similar promise, saying his agency “will continue to leverage all available tools to target the critical nodes in this [Iranian] network and disrupt its operations, which enrich the regime’s elite and encourage corruption at the expense of the people of Iran.”
The new sanctions mark the “first action against Iran’s shadow banking network since the President issued” his National Security Presidential Memorandum on Iran in early February, according to the State Department.
A U.S. official familiar with Trump’s thinking told the Washington Free Beacon that the move is an integral part of the president’s posture toward Iran.
“As long as Iran continues to bankroll Hezbollah, Hamas, and other violent jihadists bent on destabilizing the Middle East and threatening our allies, this administration will relentlessly target and dismantle the regime’s financial networks,” the official said. “Appeasement failed for decades. Today’s action is part of President Trump’s strategy of peace through strength.”
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