Sanction strategy directed at Iran

WASHINGTON – The United States for the first time Tuesday implemented sanctions to strangle Iran’s gasoline imports in a major tightening of punitive measures that is aimed at cutting off money for Tehran’s nuclear program but could intensify ordinary Iranians’ economic hardships.

The sanctions were imposed on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, two firms owned by Israel’s richest family and four other foreign companies that the State Department said were doing business with Iran’s energy sector. The Venezuelan company’s American subsidiaries and oil exports to the United States were exempt.

“All of these companies have engaged in activities related to the supply of refined petroleum products to Iran, including the direct supply of gasoline and related products,” Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said in announcing the measures.

It’s the first time the U.S. has imposed sanctions to curtail Iran’s imports of gasoline and other refined petroleum products, although it’s won voluntary agreements from major petroleum suppliers to stop doing business with Tehran. Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, but it lacks refinery capacity and must import an estimated 40 percent of its gasoline.

U.S. officials contend that Iran’s energy sector, which generates more than half the government’s budget revenues, is a key source of funding for its ballistic missile program and a uranium enrichment program that Western governments charge is a cover for a secret nuclear-weapons development effort.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Tuesday that it “remains concerned about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed nuclear-related activities of military organizations, including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”

Iran denies that it’s developing a nuclear arsenal, asserting that it’s enriching uranium for use in nuclear power plants.