New US sanctions on Iran: measures imposed on a company for its alleged link to a regime’s chemical weapons program

The government of The United States announced new sanctions against Iran on Thursday. Specifically, it has imposed measures against the Iranian company Shahid Meisami Group, as well as its director, for their alleged participation in a Tehran chemical weapons development program.

“The development of weapons of mass destruction is a threat to the safety of your neighbors and the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement. “The United States will continue to fight any attempt by the Iranian regime to develop chemical weapons that can be used by the regime or allied groups to carry out its evil agenda.“, He added.

The United States blamed the company and its director, Mehran Babri, to be linked to the Iranian Organization for Defense Research and Innovation, previously sanctioned.

“The Shahid Meisami Group has been designated as owned or controlled by the Iranian Defense Research and Innovation Organization, involved in activities that raised concerns about Iran’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, including projects that included the testing and production of chemicals to be used as “disabling agents”‘. Mehran Babri was appointed to act on behalf of the group, ”the document explains.

In consecuense, The Treasury Department has frozen any assets the entity may have under U.S. jurisdiction and financial transactions with the country’s citizens or companies are prohibited.

In a parallel note, Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, expressed “his concern that the real intention of the regime regarding the testing and production of the so-called disabling chemical it could be its use both to further oppress Iranian citizens and for offensive purposes“.

This new round of sanctions is part of the “maximum pressure” campaign launched by the outgoing US President, Donald Trump, and announced two months before he was succeeded by president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden.

The latest such measures came in late October, when the Donald Trump administration imposed sanctions on the Iranian oil sector, including sales to Syria and Venezuela. Under the new measures on Monday, the administration said it was designate the National Oil Company of Iran, the Ministry of Oil of Iran and the National Iranian Tanker Company on a list of counter-terrorism authorities, which means any future government will have to take legal action to overturn the decision.

The Treasury Department issued sanctions by linking the three entities with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which has already been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and whose commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US attack on Baghdad airport in January.

The United States initiated proceedings before the United Nations in August to restore all international sanctions against Iran that were lifted with the 2015 nuclear deal (from which Washington withdrew in 2018), claiming that Tehran had violated its obligations.

However, the majority of the Security Council – including the rest of the veto powers – believe that the United States does not have the right to use this mechanism, as it abandoned the pact in 2018, so that the United Nations body he did not take any action. Biden, criticized this approach to bilateral relations and expressed his readiness to return to the nuclear deal.

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