WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration announced new sanctions on Iran Friday, a modest turn of the economic screws on a country already facing hundreds of U.S. sanctions that have devastated the Iranian economy but produced no measurable impact on government policies.
The move marks the administration's first concrete response to Iran's missile strikes early Wednesday on two Iraqi bases that house U.S. troops, and it underlined the limited options for the White House _ short of direct military action _ as it seeks to pressure Iran to bend to its will.
The latest sanctions targeted Iran's construction, manufacturing, mining industries, the country's largest steel and iron manufacturers and eight senior officials, adding to multiple rounds of U.S. sanctions already in place under a policy the administration calls "maximum pressure."
U.S. officials also said they would temporarily ease travel bans or any other sanctions that might impede international assistance to investigate the crash of a Ukraine International Airlines passenger jet Tuesday night as it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 aboard.
The Trump administration assesses that two Iranian anti-aircraft missiles hit the aircraft, which was bound for Kyiv, possibly as an accident. Iran has denied firing any missiles at the plane.
"We do believe that it's likely that the plane was shot down by an Iranian missile," Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said.
"We're going to let the investigation play out before we make a final determination. It's important that we get to the bottom of it," he told reporters at the White House.
Pompeo announced the sanctions with Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, saying the goal is to "deny the regime the resources to conduct its destructive foreign policy."
The sanctions, they said, would remain in place until Iran ended its support of regional militant groups and what it claims is Tehran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Mnuchin insisted that "economic sanctions are working." Without them, he said Iran would have "tens of billions of dollars" and that it could use "for terrorist activities."
In a tweet, Trump said sanctions already "were very severe, but now it's increased substantially."
Iran has faced U.S. and international military and economic sanctions since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
But Trump has steadily ramped up the pressure on the country's oil, financial, metals and other sectors _ and helped send the Iranian economy into a tailspin _ since 2018, when he withdrew from the international accord designed to cut off Iran's potential pathway to a nuclear bomb. Iran has always denied it was seeking nuclear weapons.
In an address Wednesday, Trump urged the five other world powers that signed the Obama-era nuclear agreement _ the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China _ to also withdraw, but none has signaled any intent to do so. He has urged Iran to renegotiate the deal but Iran's leaders have dismissed his offer, and the two sides remain at an impasse.
After a U.S. drone killed Iran's most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad last Friday, and Iran retaliated with a hail of missiles that caused no casualties, the latest sanctions represents a return to the uneasy status quo of recent years _ although the situation remains tense, with Iran's leaders vowing that their response to Soleimani's death is not complete.
Pompeo defended the administration's initial claims that intelligence showed Soleimani was plotting an "imminent" attack on U.S. forces or facilities as legal justification for killing a senior government official outside a war zone.
In a Fox News interview Thursday, Pompeo admitted that the intelligence didn't say "when or where" an attack would take place. On Friday, he argued that the two statements were "completely consistent thoughts."
"It was very clear ... those attacks were imminent," he said after being pressed by reporters. "This was going to happen and American lives were at risk. And we would be culpably negligent if we did not recommend to the president he take this action against Soleimani."
