US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions on Iran’s oil sector, saying Iran’s expanding nuclear program has raised new concerns the country may be preparing to build an atomic bomb.
The embargoes against three unnamed entities involved in transporting Iranian oil and petrochemical products were announced amid growing warnings of a new conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iranian proxy Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite group that rules Lebanon.
Blinken said in a statement Thursday that Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program over the past month “in a manner that has no credible peaceful purpose.”
The new sanctions measures designate 11 vessels linked to the three embargoed entities as “blocked assets.”
“Iran’s actions to increase its enrichment capabilities are all the more concerning given Iran’s continuing failure to cooperate with the IAEA.” [International Atomic Energy Agency] “We are also concerned by comments made by Iranian officials that suggest a possible change in Iran’s nuclear policy,” Blinken said.
He was referring to recent comments by Kamal Khalazzi, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The country could revise its defense policy. Following a series of military exchanges with Israel in April, it was given permission to build nuclear weapons.
“We have not decided to build a nuclear bomb, but if Iran’s existence is threatened, we will have no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi said. “In the event of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrent capabilities would change.”
Iran has always maintained its nuclear program is strictly civilian, and Khamenei has explicitly denied building a nuclear bomb, which is forbidden in Islam.
The signs of a change in policy came following a series of incidents that began with an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran responded by firing 300 missiles at Israel, all of which were shot down by U.S. and allied missile defense systems. Israel then attacked a radar air defense system near the central Iranian city of Isfahan in what appeared to be a planned retaliation, but Iran claimed the damage was minimal.
Blinken’s announcement on Thursday came after he met in Washington with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who also met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and CIA Director William Burns to reportedly discuss Iran’s recent nuclear activities.
“We remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use the full power of our nation to ensure that outcome,” Blinken said.
IAEA officials estimate that Iran currently has enough enriched uranium at 60% purity to build at least three nuclear weapons, which can be converted into bomb-grade material within days or weeks.
The agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed with Iran’s theocratic regime under President Barack Obama was intended to contain the country’s nuclear activities, but was scrapped in 2018 by Donald Trump and replaced with new sanctions designed to curtail the program through “maximum pressure”.
Efforts under President Joe Biden’s administration to revive the Obama-era agreement have failed.
