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The US will reimpose all anti-Iranian sanctions, which had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced on November 2. According to the US Treasury, the sanction list will include over 700 entities and individuals, including 300 new names.

“Together with the unprecedented sanctions actions taken by the Trump Administration, this will be the toughest sanctions regime ever imposed on Iran,” the White House said. “Sanctions will target critical sectors of Iran’s economy, such as its energy, shipping, shipbuilding, and financial sectors.”

According to the White House statement, the sanctions will target the following:

“- Over 700 individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft are going back onto our sanctions list, including major Iranian banks, oil exporters, and shipping companies. – The sanctions also target transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and designated Iranian financial institutions. – Sales of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices to Iran have long been—and remain—exempt from our sanctions.”

The statement emphasized that the Trump adminsitration “will continue to stand up to the Iranian regime’s aggression and will fully enforce the reimposed sanctions” as well as paid a special attention to the part of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil export. The sanctions will come into force on November 5.

Earlier on November 2, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also threatened Iran with sanctions against the transaction service SWIFT.

“SWIFT is no different than any other entity,” Mnuchin said. “We have advised SWIFT that it must disconnect any Iranian financial institutions that we designate as soon as technologically feasible to avoid sanctions exposure.”

Nonetheless, it seems there is some gap in the Trump adminstration’s plan to “fully enforce the reimposed sanctions”. According to Bloomberg, the US already granted waivers to 8 states importing Iranian oil. The lest is expected to be announced by State Secretary Mike Pompeo later on November 2.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the US is seeking to wage an extensive “psychological war” against Iran by imposing a fresh round of sanctions.

“There is no room for any concern. We should wait and see that the US will not be able to carry out any measure against the great and brave Iranian nation,” Qassemi told IRIB. “It seems that the US has no more capability to put countries and global economic enterprises under pressure”

He claimed that the US carried out numerous measures and spent huge sums to exert pressure on international banks, companies, commercial enterprises and institutions in order to dissuade them from working with Iran but all such efforts failed to bear fruit.

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