US imposes fresh sanctions on Iran over apparent nuclear escalations

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has announced fresh sanctions against Iran’s petroleum sector in response to what he described as an expansion of the country’s nuclear programme which has provoked renewed fears that it is preparing to build an atomic bomb.

The embargoes – on three unnamed entities involved in the transport of Iranian petroleum or petrochemical products – were announced amid a chorus of warnings of a renewed conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, the powerful Shia group that dominates Lebanon.

In a statement on Thursday, Blinken said Iran had expanded its uranium enrichment programme in the past month “in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose”.

Under the new sanctions, 11 vessels associated with the three embargoed organisations would be designated as “blocked property”.

“Iran’s actions to increase its enrichment capacity are all the more concerning in light of Iran’s continued failure to cooperate with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and statements by Iranian officials suggesting potential changes to Iran’s nuclear doctrine,” Blinken said.

He was referring to recent comments by Kamal Kharazzi, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the country could revise its defence doctrine to permit the building of nuclear weapons following a series of military exchanges with Israel in April.

“We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi said. “In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change.”

The fresh sanctions were imposed a day before Iran goes to the polls on Friday in a special presidential election called to elect a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, the previous president, who was killed last month in a helicopter crash along with Hossein-Amir Abdollahian, the country’s foreign minister, and the several other officials.

Iran has previously insisted that its nuclear programme is strictly for civilian purposes, with Khamenei pointedly ruling out the development of a nuclear bomb as forbidden under Islam.

The hints at a change of policy followed a series of episodes which started with the killing of members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic compound in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Iran responded by firing 300 missiles at Israel, all of which were shot down by US and allied missiles defence systems. In what was seen as a calibrated retaliation, Israel then fired on a radar air-defence system near the central Iranian city of Isfahan, which Iran claimed did minimal damage.

Blinken’s announcement on Thursday followed talks in Washington with Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who also met the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and William Burns, the CIA director, in talks that reportedly addressed Iran’s recent nuclear activities.

“We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome,” Blinken said.

IAEA officials have estimated that Iran now has enough uranium enriched to 60% purity – which could be converted to bomb-grade material in days or weeks – to build up at least three nuclear weapons.

An agreement, official known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, concluded with Iran’s theocratic regime during Barack Obama’s presidency was intended to contain the country’s nuclear activities, but it was scrapped by Donald Trump in 2018, and replaced with fresh sanctions intended to curtail the programme through “maximum pressure”.

Attempts to revive the Obama-era accord under Joe Biden’s administration have foundered.