US expects to hit Iran with new sanctions ‘in the coming days’ — Yellen

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that Washington expects to hit Iran with new sanctions “in the coming days” following its unprecedented attack on Israel last weekend.

Yellen said Iran’s oil exports “remain in focus as a possible area” they could address, adding that Iran’s actions threaten stability in the Middle East.

“From this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers,” she warned.

Speaking from Washington, Yellen said the Treasury would use its sanctions authority and work with allies to “continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity”.

Her remarks follow Israel’s demand for sanctions on Iran’s missile project.

According to the Treasury Department, the US is already using financial sanctions to isolate Iran and disrupt its ability to fund proxy groups and support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Tehran is tense, two days after Iran’s unprecedented direct attack on Israel.

Worried about war and its impact on Iran’s already flailing economy, a significant proportion of Iranians oppose what they see as the reckless adventurism of the country’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which fired more than 300 drones and missiles on Saturday night.

In a letter sent to BBC Persian, a long list of Iranian activists both inside the country and abroad criticized the IRGC’s actions and saying “No to warmongering!”

Many Iranians also see the Iran-Israel confrontation now emerging from the shadows as being orchestrated by the Iranian government rather than reflective of the will of the Iranian people.

This perception is underscored by a heavy police presence on the streets of Tehran — ostensibly about enforcing strict Islamic dress codes requiring women to cover their hair but which many suspect is mainly about crushing any possible protests.

Some decision-makers fear that if Iranian security forces and the IRGC’s command centers are hit in a war with Israel and the US, this could reignite nationwide protests that erupted in 2022 after the death of a young woman in police custody.

Some graffiti has appeared on walls in Iranian cities — “Israel, strike the supreme leader’s [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s] house,” reads one. “Israel hit them, they lack the courage to retaliate,” read another.

The government has its own billboards — “Tel Aviv is our battleground, not Tehran,” reads one.

Immediately after the IRGC attack, supporters of the Islamic Republic celebrated and a banner warning Israelis that “the next slap will be fiercer” was hung from a building in Tehran.

“I believe it was the right decision to attack Israel to prevent further killings of Iranian commanders in Syria and elsewhere,” one woman said in a voice message sent to BBC Persian.

But another said: “Iranians themselves are in a state of war with the current regime. We harbor no animosity towards any nation, including Israel.”

Meanwhile a woman said she was concerned about a wider war. Such fears appeared to prompt people to scramble to stock up on essentials like food and fuel, with pictures showing queues forming outside petrol stations in Tehran and supermarkets inundated with shoppers.

With the official inflation rate standing at just over 40% and tens of millions of people struggling with the cost of living, a military confrontation with Israel was the last thing most Iranians wanted.

The value of the Iranian rial fell against the US dollar after the IRGC attack, as it had already done after Israel’s earlier attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. — BBC