US piles sanctions on Iran as Rouhani threatens new step back from nuclear commitments

The US ended a day of escalating moves against Iran on Wednesday by imposing new sanctions targeting an alleged Iranian oil shipping network.

It came just after it announced restrictions on Iran’s Civilian Space Agency and refused to waive sanctions to allow a French credit line to be extended to the country.

The sanctions against 16 entities, 10 individuals and 11 ships were simultaneously followed by the Trump administration announcing a $15 million reward for information that leads to disrupting the Iranian Revolutionary Guard oil network.

The Treasury Department targeted an interconnected network that it said are “directed by and financially support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its terrorist proxy Hezbollah”. It claimed that this network was managed mostly through Syria by bringing in $750 million from oil smuggling.

“This IRGC-QF-led network employed more than a dozen vessels to transport nearly 10 million barrels of crude oil, predominantly to the Syrian regime,” the statement read.

Parallel to the sanctions, the US State Department announced a maximum of $15 million “for information leading to the disruption of the financial mechanisms of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its branches, including the IRGC-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).”

“This includes seeking information on the IRGC’s illicit oil sales, including via oil tankers like the Adrian Darya.”

The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Grace 1 – now called the Adrian Darya-1 – deactivated its tracking beacon off the coast of Syria on Wednesday morning, leading to speculation that its cargo of crude oil would be delivered to President Bashar Al Assad's regime in defiance of EU sanctions.

Authorities in Gibraltar released the tanker in August after receiving "written assurances" from Tehran that the cargo would not be delivered to Syria.

Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran said this is the first time that a government entity -in this case the IRGC-QF- has come under the Rewards for Justice program which is traditionally reserved to non-state actors and terrorist organisations.

A short time before the US announced the new sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would announce a new step in scaling back its nuclear commitments within two days, despite an offer of access to $15 billion in credit from France to stave off economic collapse if Tehran returns to the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.

"I don't think that... we will reach a deal so we'll take the third step and we will announce the details today or tomorrow," Mr Rouhani was quoted as saying on the presidency website.

The French plan, introduced by President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit in Biarritz last month, suffered another serious blow late on Wednesday as the US refused to issue sanctions waivers to make the deal work.

France, Germany and the UK said they were ready to offer the credit facility if Tehran accepted conditions and the US approved the deal.

"We did sanctions today. There will be more sanctions coming. We can't make it any more clear that we are committed to this campaign of maximum pressure and we are not looking to grant any exceptions or waivers," Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, told reporters.

Mr Hook’s comments were a swift about-turn from comments Mr Trump made during the G7 in which he appeared to support the move.

The US was not the only nation displaying mixed messages. On Wednesday morning it promised to free seven of the 23 detained Stena Impero crew members, yet announced its seizure of seven fishing boats in the Gulf of Oman later in the day.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the seven were allowed to leave the ship on humanitarian grounds and could leave Iran soon.

"We have no problem with the crew and the captain and the issue is violations that the vessel committed," Mr Mousavi said.

The Swedish-owned Stena Impero was detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz waterway for alleged marine violations.

The remaining 16 Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino seafarers will stay on board in order to meet the minimum requirements to operate the ship, making it unclear when the vessel itself would be released.

Bob Sanguinetti, chief executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping trade association, said Iran must immediately release the remaining mariners once the seven crew had been freed.

"The ship was in international waters when it was detained and was in full compliance with all navigation and international regulations," Mr Sanguinetti said.

By the afternoon, the generous gesture was seemingly forgotten as the Revolutionary Guards said that its navy had detained seven trawling vessels with 24 foreign crew.

The boats were seized near the mouth of the Gulf on Tuesday for fishing too close to Iran's coast and other violations, the ISNA news agency reported.

A Guards statement did not give the crews' nationalities, but Iranian media have often carried reports of complaints from local fishermen about Chinese ships active in bottom trawling, which involves dragging a large net across the sea floor.