February 07 2020
President Trump announced that he would not retaliate militarily for the missiles Iran shot at a base in Iraq used by US troops, but would instead punish Iran mercilessly with new and harsher sanctions.
Those new sanctions were unveiled January 10. But they didn’t amount to much.
Trump sanctioned six senior officials under an executive order issued last July that targets people close to the Supreme Leader. The sanctions freeze any of their assets in the United States, which are likely to amount to zero, and denies them visas, which they were already denied under Trump’s freeze on visas for most Iranians.
The six targeted include three senior Pasdar generals, the former commander of the Pasdaran, Mohsen Rezai, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, and a cleric who is a member of the Assembly of Experts and formerly was on the Supreme Leader’s personal staff.
The sanctions decree also hit 20 entities, mostly mining companies. Trump signed a new executive order that day singling out mining companies for sanctions.
In a statement issued by the White House, Trump said the sanctions “will have a major impact on the Iranian economy” and “will remain until the Iranian regime changes its behavior.”
But many who work on sanctions just shrugged their shoulders and said the new sanctions would have only marginal impact. (See story on last page of the last issue quoting Richard Nephew, who worked on sanctions in the Obama Administration.)