The European Union and the United States are considering additional sanctions against Iran, with Reuters noting the move sought to discourage Israel from retaliation for this weekend missile strike barrage that would inevitably lead to an escalation in the conflict.
The BBC cited Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, as saying Brussels was currently working on the sanctions, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said news in this respect would be coming in the next few days.
"With respect to sanctions, I fully expect that we will take additional sanctions action against Iran in the coming days," Yellen told media, as quoted by Reuters. "We don't preview our sanctions tools. But in discussions I've had, all options to disrupt terrorist financing of Iran continue to be on the table," the Treasury Secretary also said.
Yellen went on to suggest that the new sanctions would target Iran's oil industry, saying "Clearly, Iran is continuing to export some oil. There may be more that we could do."
Additional sanctions on Iran's oil may have a more pronounced effect on oil prices than the attack against Israel, a retaliation for an Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
So far, these events have failed to move prices much with the dominant sentiment being that escalation that could lead to supply disruption would be avoided. With the potential of new sanctions affecting Iran's oil flows, this may well change.
New sanctions would also target Iran's missile and drone program, according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
"We anticipate that our allies and partners will soon be following with their own sanctions," Sullivan told media as quoted by the BBC. "These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran's military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviours."
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry. More