Yellen Says New Sanctions for Iran Regime are on the Way

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Tuesday that Tehran will be facing new sanctions because of its Saturday attack on Israel.

While speaking to reporters at an International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington, the secretary said that "I fully expect that we will take additional sanctions action against Iran in the coming days."

Although Yellen provided no information on any specific efforts, she did affirm that “all options to disrupt terrorist financing of Iran continue to be on the table.”

Yellen disclosed that sanctioning the Islamic Republic’s petroleum exports could be included in the next package of restrictions.

“Clearly, Iran is continuing to export some oil. There may be more that we could do. I don’t want to preview our actual sanctions activities, but certainly that remains in focus as a possible area that we could address,” she said.

Targeting the regime’s oil exports may face some resistance in the Biden administration because such an action could disrupt relations with China, a country that in 2023 was accused of illicitly purchasing an estimated 1 million barrels a day from the sanctioned state.

In addition to the diplomatic considerations, limiting Tehran's oil exports may cause political problems for the White House because the proposal will likely raise global energy prices by removing too much supply from the market.

This concern was shared by the president of the Rapidan Energy Group, Bob McNally, who told The Washington Post that “the last thing Biden wants is higher gas prices, so he wants Iran selling its oil to China. He does not want that oil to be shut in. It’s as simple as that; he can’t afford to sanction Iran’s oil. They could do some symbolic stuff, to go after a little trader here or there, but that’s likely about it.”