"Sanctions at the highest level". The United States announced on Friday, September 20, new measures against the Central Bank of Iran, presented by Donald Trump as "the most severe ever imposed on a country." "We have just sanctioned the national bank of Iran," said the US president in the Oval Office.

At his side, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explained that it was a question of targeting "the last source of revenue for the Central Bank of Iran and the National Development Fund, that is, their sovereign fund that will be cut off from our banking system. " "This means that there will be no more money going to the Revolutionary Guards," the elite army of Iranian power, "to finance terrorism," he added.

Attacks in Saudi Arabia

These new punitive measures come in the wake of last Saturday's attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia which, according to Washington, were carried out by the Iranians, which Tehran denies.

>> Read also: Washington is convinced that attacks in Saudi Arabia have been launched from Iran

Donald Trump was scheduled to meet Friday afternoon with his key ministers and advisers to explore options, including military, to complete the US response to these attacks.

"There has never been a country more prepared" than the United States to conduct military strikes, he warned. "It would be the easy way for me", "hit 15 major sites in Iran", "it would only take a minute" and "it would be a very bad day for Iran," he added. "But that's not what I prefer, if possible," he said.

"Retention is a good thing"

The Republican miliardaire on the contrary felt that the best way to "show the strength" of the United States was to "show a little restraint." "Retention is a good thing," he insisted, having made "change of mind to many people" on the subject.

In detail, the US Treasury is now targeting the Iranian Central Bank and Iran's sovereign wealth fund for "providing billions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guards, its Quds Force" in charge of external operations, "and their ally. terrorist, Hezbollah "Lebanese. These three entities are classified as terrorist organizations by Washington.

US sanctions since 2018

The Central Bank and the bulk of Iran's financial institutions have already been hit by US sanctions since November 2018, after Donald Trump's withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal.

Some "hawks" in Washington, however, argued that the motives for sanctions against the Central Bank, hitherto related to Tehran's nuclear activities, should be extended to the financing of terrorism. The measures would be more difficult to dismantle in the event of the election in 2020 of a democratic president more inclined to renew the dialogue with Iran on the atomic issue.

"This proves to Tehran that US sanctions will not stop unless Iran changes its behavior" and "stops funding terrorism," said Behnam Ben Taleblu, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a circle of reflection that pleads for "maximum pressure" against the Iranian regime.

With AFP