By MATTHEW LEE
WASHINGTON (AP) ââ¬â The Bush administration is imposing sweeping new sanctions against Iran’s defense ministry, its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a number of banks to punish them for purported support for terrorist organizations in Iraq and the Middle East, missile sales and nuclear activities, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The measures, to be announced by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, will cover some of the Iranian government’s largest military and financial institutions, which Washington blames for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan, Shia insurgent groups in Iraq, along with the Hamas and Hezbollah organizations, they said.
Iran’s defense ministry and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps are to be designated proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology while several banks will be hit with sanctions for "proliferation financing," the officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.
The Quds force and banks will be identified as "specially designated global terrorist" groups for their activities and financing of militant groups in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, the officials said.
In all, more than 20 Iranian entities, including individuals and companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Guards will be covered by the sanctions, they said.
The sanctions will be the toughest the United States has levied against Tehran since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy there.
Rice told a House committee Wednesday that the administration shares Congress’ goal of making sanctions tougher on Iran. She also declared that activities in Iraq by the Quds Force "are inconsistent with the Iranian government’s obligations and stated commitment to support the Iraqi government."
"We have decided to take this measure because we believe Iran is continuing its proliferation activities and its terrorism activities and certainly on the nuclear (issue) it is continuing activities. We also want these actions to contribute to a diplomatic solution to this problem," said one official.
The two officials said they hoped the measures would ratchet up pressure on Iran to negotiate.
The United States has long labeled Iran as a state supporter of terrorism and has been working for years to gain support for tougher sanctions from the international community aimed at keeping the country from developing nuclear weapons.
The sanctions would be unilateral, however, and are believed to be the first of their type taken by the United States specifically against the armed forces of another government.
The sanctions reportedly will empower the United States to financially isolate a large part of Iran’s military and anyone inside or outside Iran who does business with it.
Such steps could impact any number of foreign companies by pressuring them to stop doing business with the Revolutionary Guards or risk U.S. sanctions.
The Revolutionary Guards, formed to safeguard Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, has pushed well beyond its military roots, and now owns car factories and construction firms and operates newspaper groups and oil fields.
Current and former members now hold a growing role across the country’s government and economy, sometimes openly and other times in shadow.
The guards have gained a particularly big role in the country’s oil and gas industry in recent years, as the national oil company has signed several contracts with a guards-operated construction company. Some have been announced publicly, including a $2 billion deal in 2006 to develop part of the important Pars gas field.
Now numbering about 125,000 members, they report directly to the supreme leader and officially handle internal security. The small Quds Force wing is thought to operate overseas, having helped to create the militant Hezbollah group in 1982 in Lebanon and to arm Bosnian Muslims during the Balkan wars.
The administration accuses the Quds Force of sending fighters and deadly roadside bombs, mortars and rockets to kill American troops in Iraq in recent years ââ¬â allegations that Iran denies.
The United States pressures U.S. and European banks to do no business with Iranian banks, such as Bank Sedarat that the Bush administration believes help finance guards’ business operations. But the United States has been known for some time to also be considering naming the entire group as a foreign terrorist organization, allowing wider financial crackdowns.
