US Hits Iran with Fresh Sanctions
The Treasury Department said it had blacklisted nine entities and individuals accused of facilitating arms acquisitions on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Defense Ministry, and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
"Through Economic Fury, the Treasury Department is disrupting the foreign procurement networks that support the Iranian military's efforts to acquire weapons," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
"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," he added.
Among those designated are several individuals and entities with ties to China. They include Liu Boyu, identified by the Treasury Department as the sole director of Mustad Limited — a firm the agency alleged has facilitated the "IRGC's procurement of millions of dollars' worth of weapons." Two of the company's employees, Wang Hongyi and Xu Lichun, were also sanctioned.
Alongside Mustad and an affiliated company, Washington imposed economic penalties on Domus Trading HK Limited, which it alleged "works within Iran's clandestine banking network to facilitate payments on behalf of Iranian blocked persons and has attempted to facilitate payments for Iran's weapons procurement efforts."
Iranian national Manuchehr Golchin, based in China, was blacklisted for allegedly serving "as a facilitator for MODAFL's defense acquisitions from China." Chinese national Meng Shaopei was also sanctioned for allegedly supporting Golchin through the Hong Kong-based firm Solos International Limited.
The sanctions announcement came just minutes after Trump told reporters the US would continue military operations against Iran, following the downing of an American Apache attack helicopter late Monday.
The president said American forces "hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them again hard today," indicating little concern for how continued military action could imperil ongoing negotiations to formally end the US-Israeli war against Iran.
"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," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to the downed Apache.
"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," he said.
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