KABUL: (MEP) Barack Obama, the US president is reportedly preparing fresh sanctions on international companies and individuals over Iran’s ballistic missile program, sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal published a report earlier that the potential sanctions would target about 12 companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for their suspected role in developing Iran’s ballistic-missile program.
U.S. officials have said the Treasury Department retains a right under July’s landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers including Washington to blacklist Iranian entities suspected of involvement in missile development, the officials said.
On December 18, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif defended Iran’s right to carry out missile tests for defensive purposes, saying none of his country’s missiles are capable of carrying nuclear missiles.
A team of U.N. sanctions monitors said in a confidential report seen by Reuters on Dec. 15 that a medium-range Emad rocket that Iran tested on Oct. 10 was a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear missile, making it a violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution.
Zarif said in an interview published by The New Yorker. It’s our legitimate defense. These are not missiles that are designed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads and, therefore, it is within our right to self-defense.
Diplomats have said it was possible for the sanctions committee to blacklist additional Iranian individuals or entities over the missile launch. But they said Russia and China, which have opposed the sanctions on Iran’s missile program, might block any such actions.
Tehran has disputed the Western assessment that the Emad missile was capable of delivering a nuclear missile.
The Treasury is also preparing to sanction five Iranian officials at the country’s defense ministry and its subsidiaries for work on the ballistic-missile program, according to the newspaper.
The Journal said reasons for the potential sanctions included ties the Treasury is alleging between Iran and North Korea on missile development.
