Trump Announces New Sanctions on Iran

By Epoch Newsroom
February 3, 2017 Last Updated: February 3, 2017
A Qadr H long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, during a maneuver, in an undisclosed location in Iran on March 9, 2016. (Omid Vahabzadeh/Fars News Agency via AP)

The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on 13 people and 12 companies in response to Iran’s recent ballistic missile test.

The Treasury Department announced the action on Friday, which listed the “sanctioned individuals and entities, some of which are based in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and China,” Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, said this week that the administration was putting Iran “on notice” for its missile test Sunday and for supporting the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Trump tweeted Friday that “Iran is playing with fire – they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!”

Other details about the new sanctions are not immediately clear.

On Thursday, amid speculation, Trump also wrote: “Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion.” 

The country, he added, should “have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!”

Earlier this week, it was reported that Iran tested a nuclear-capable cruise missile known as “Sumar.” The country confirmed this week that it test-fired the missile, but it insisted that the test didn’t violate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear agreement with other world powers or the U.N. Security Council resolution on the agreement.

International sanctions on Tehran were removed in January 2016 following a nuclear deal carried out by Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the U.S.

Associated Press contributed to this report.