According to the newspaper, the Treasury Department is working on the sanctions, which would target five Iranian officials and two Iran-linked networks, along with foreign nationals and companies. The Obama administration alleges that all of them have been involved in developing Iran’s missile program in one way or another.
The list of affected parties includes Dubai-based Mabrooka Trading Co. and its founder Hossein Pournaghshband; Hong Kong-based Anhui Land Group Co; Sayyed Javad Musavi, commercial director of Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group; as well as a total of seven officials from Iran’s Ministry of Defense for Armed Forces Logistics, or MODFAL.
The seven MODFAL individuals include Musavi, commercial director of Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which is a subsidiary of Iran’s Ministry of Defense for Armed Forces Logistics. Sayyed Medhi Farahi and Seyed Mohammad Hashemi, two of the ministry’s senior members, are also said to be targeted.
While the Treasury has not provided the reasoning for the new penalties, the Journal reported that it could have to do with alleged collaboration between Iran and North Korea on missile development over the past two years, in which the Islamic country bought components from Pyongyang’s state-owned Korea Mining Development Trading Corp and Tehran has sent staff to the hermit state.
If the pending measures of the Treasury come through, they would be the first sanctions imposed on Iran by the US since the two struck a deal restricting Iran’s nuclear program this July.
Iran earlier warned the US that its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, would consider any financial penalties a violation of the nuclear agreement. However, the WSJ says the Obama administration views activities linked to missile development as separate from the nuclear deal.
The Iranian government has not commented on the possible new sanctions, the newspaper said.
Iranian diplomats have already accused the US of breaching the nuclear deal. In the wake of the San Bernardino, California shooting, Congress passed legislation requiring any foreign national who has visited Iran or Syria to obtain a visa before entering America.
According to Reuters, which claims to have seen a confidential report by UN sanctions monitors, a medium-range Emad rocket that Tehran fired on October 10 was capable of delivering a nuclear warhead and, thus, a violation of a UN Security Council resolution.
On Tuesday, the US military expressed outrage over Iranian ships firing rockets in the Strait of Hormuz, as the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was reportedly passing by 1,500 yards away (1,371 meters). US Central Command called the drill “provocative, unsafe, and unprofessional.”
“These actions were highly provocative, unsafe, and unprofessional and call into question Iran’s commitment to the security of a waterway vital to international commerce,” Navy Commander Kyle Raines said. “While most interactions between Iranian forces and the US Navy are professional, safe, and routine, this event was not and runs contrary to efforts to ensure freedom of navigation and maritime safety in the global commons.”