The Trump administration announced on Friday new sanctions against Iran amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran since the U.S. killing of the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Maj. Gen, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad Airport on Jan. 3.
The sanctions will target Iranian industries, including manufacturing, steel, iron, mining, textiles and construction.
Economic penalties will also affect eight senior Iranian officials the administration suspected were behind this week’s ballistic-missile strikes on two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
The new measures were announced in a White House press briefing by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The new sanctions are designed to “stop the Iranian regime’s global terrorist activities,” said Mnuchin.
Ahead of the sanctions, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that current ones “were very severe, but now it’s increased substantially.”
