On October 9, the United States moved to tighten loopholes in its Iran sanctions. President Barack Obama’s new Executive Order will implement additional punitive measures that he signed into law on August 10, 2012. National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said the law sanctions activities related to “Iran’s energy and financial sectors, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, support for terrorism, and activities related to human rights abuses by Iran and Syria.”
The following are key points of the Executive Order as outlined in the President’s letter to Congress with links to the full text at the end.
The order states that the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, shall take the following actions necessary to implement the sanctions selected, imposed, and maintained on a person by the President, or by the Secretary of State or the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to authority that I have delegated:
·prohibit any United States financial institution from making loans or providing credits to the sanctioned person
·prohibit any transactions in foreign exchange that are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and in which the sanctioned person has any interest
·prohibit any transfers of credit or payments between financial institutions or by, through, or to any financial institution, to the extent that such transfers or payments are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and involve any interest of the sanctioned person
·block all property and interests in property that are in the United States, that come within the United States, or that are or come within the possession or control of any United States person, including any foreign branch, of the sanctioned person, and provide that such property and interests in property may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in
·prohibit any United States person from investing in or purchasing significant amounts of equity or debt instruments of a sanctioned person
·impose on the principal executive officer or officers, or persons performing similar functions and with similar authorities, of a sanctioned person
·restrict or prohibit imports of goods, technology, or services, directly or indirectly, into the United States from the sanctioned person
·block the property or interests in property and suspend entry into the United States of persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with or at the recommendation of the Secretary of State
The full text of the Executive Order can be found here.
The full text of the Memorandum can be found here.
The full text of President Obama’s letter can be found here.