US President Barack Obama has issued an executive order tightening the existing US sanctions on Iran and its central bank over Teheran's continued refusal to address international concerns on its disputed nuclear program, it was announced Monday.
The new order signed by Obama on Sunday authorizes US banks and other financial institutions to freeze assets of Iranian government as well as the country's central bank and other financial institutions held in the United States.
Under earlier sanctions, American institutions were required to "reject" any Iranian state assets they encountered. The latest order prevents any Iranian assets deemed within US jurisdiction, including foreign branches of American banks, from being transferred, paid, exported or withdrawn. The move is apparently aimed at preventing Teheran from exploiting any loopholes in the existing sanctions.
"I have determined that additional sanctions are warranted, particularly in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks to conceal transactions of sanctioned parties, the deficiencies in Iran's anti-money laundering regime and the weaknesses in its implementation," Obama said in a letter to Congress. He noted that Iranian financial activities are posing "continuing and unacceptable risk" to the international financial system.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury in a statement said President Obama's latest order was part of "the administration's resolve to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its failure to meet its international obligations" linked to its disputed nuclear program.
The Treasury statement added that Iran would continue to face "ever-increasing economic and diplomatic pressure" until it answers the international community's "well-founded and well-documented concerns" about its nuclear program.
The U.S. has already imposed a series of sanctions on Iran, including those signed into law by Obama in December with the intention of crippling the Islamic Republic's oil revenue that financed the country's disputed nuclear program.
The measures authorized the administration to bar foreign financial institutions that engage in financial transactions with the Central Bank of Iran, making it difficult for Tehran to sell its crude oil in the international market. The Obama administration has six months to impose the sanctions, which also carries the option of waiving penalties for national security reasons.
The US had earlier banned its banks from doing business with the Iranian central bank. Moreover, the US Senate had approved new economic sanctions against Iran earlier this month, targeting companies in joint uranium mining projects and organizations supplying the Islamic Republic with weapons. The US had joined Britain and Canada in November in slapping new sanctions on Iran to ratchet up pressure on the country to roll back its disputed nuclear program.
The EU barred member-states in January from importing, purchasing and transporting Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. The 27-member bloc also froze the assets of the Iranian central bank within the EU, while ensuring that legitimate trade would continue under strict conditions.
The West hopes that the new sanctions will persuade Iran to rejoin the stalled negotiations with the six world powers over its disputed nuclear program. Although Iran maintains its uranium enrichment work is aimed at producing fuel for a medical-purpose reactor, the West suspects Teheran's claims are just a cover-up for producing weapon-grade uranium.
Iran has already survived four sets of sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council following refusal to halt its uranium enrichment, including the one imposed in June 2010. Since then, the six world powers have held two rounds of talks with Iran, once in Geneva in December 2010 and again in Istanbul in January 2011. Both negotiations failed to reach any agreements on the issue.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.