The United States on Wednesday announced a new round of sanctions targeting Iran's military and weapons programs, coming just minutes after President Donald Trump declared that American forces would continue striking targets in the country.
New Sanctions Details
The Treasury Department blacklisted nine entities and individuals accused of assisting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Defense Ministry, and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) in procuring weapons. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated, "Through Economic Fury, the Treasury Department is disrupting the foreign procurement networks that support the Iranian military’s efforts to acquire weapons."
In a statement, the Treasury Department said: "Today, as part of Economic Fury, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned nine individuals and entities that have supported weapons procurement on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics." Bessent added, "Treasury has frozen the Iranian regime’s assets, severely disrupted its economy, and dismantled the Iranian war machine. Treasury will not tolerate any support of the Iranian military."
Entities and Individuals Targeted
The designated entities include individuals and companies based in China. Among them is Liu Boyu, identified as the sole director of Mustad Limited, which allegedly facilitated the IRGC’s procurement of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons. Two employees of the company, Wang Hongyi and Xu Lichun, were also sanctioned.
Additionally, Domus Trading HK Limited was penalized for allegedly working within Iran’s clandestine banking network to facilitate payments on behalf of Iranian blocked persons and attempting to support Iran’s weapons procurement efforts. Iranian national Manuchehr Golchin, based in China, was blacklisted for serving as a facilitator for MODAFL’s defense acquisitions from China. Chinese national Meng Shaopei was sanctioned for aiding Golchin through Hong Kong-based Solos International Limited.
Trump's Remarks on Continued Strikes
Minutes before the Treasury announcement, Trump stated that the US would continue attacks against Iran following the downing of an American Apache helicopter late Monday. He said, "We hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them again hard today," signaling indifference to the impact on negotiations to formally end the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, "We're going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard. Yeah, well, we are based on the helicopter, I guess we have the right to do that, you know. They shot down a very, very incredible, actually an incredible machine." He added, "We'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers."
