Okay, so here's how we're going to punish you for living up to our agreement and your promises

US Slaps New Sanctions on Iran Over Ballistic Missile Program

An Iranian woman holds a poster as she stands in front of a mural of the Statue of Liberty bearing the face of a skull. | Photo: Reuters

The U.S. Departments of Treasury and State announced Tuesday that they are imposing new sanctions on 18 individuals, organizations and networks over the Middle Eastern country’s ballistic missile program. The announcement came a day after the United States certified that Iran was complying with a landmark nuclear deal signed two years ago.

Those sanctioned, according to the Associated Press, include a Turkey-based company that exports naval equipment to Tehran and a China-based network that provides electronics to the Islamic Republic. Both institutions, along with everyone else targeted by the sanctions, will have their U.S. assets frozen.

Furthermore, U.S. citizens will be barred from doing business with any of these groups or individuals.

“The United States remains deeply concerned about Iran’s malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, security, and prosperity,” the State Department said in a statement.

The department alleged that the activities of targeted individuals “undercut whatever 'positive contributions' to regional and international peace and security were intended to emerge” from the nuclear agreement.

The announcement came a day after the United States certified that Iran was complying with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal signed with Washington and other world powers.

The United States alleges that Iran’s missile program violates United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which approved Tehran’s nuclear deal with the P5+1 states in 2015.

Iran, however, asserts that its missile tests do not breach any UN resolutions because they are solely for defense purposes and that they are not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

“We receive contradictory signals,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday before the decision was announced.

“So we don’t know which one to interpret in what way.”

Shortly after the United States announced the new round of sanctions, Iranian lawmakers passed a “single-urgency bill,” which designates U.S. military forces and intelligence services as “supporters of terrorist groups in the Middle East,” Press TV reported.

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