President Obama has announced that he is imposing yet more sanctions against Iran’s economy. With their oil industry now under a virtual state of embargo, he is now moving against Iran’s natural gas exports, not a huge portion of their economy by any means.

In addition to the natural gas exports, the new round of sanctions also target companies involved in “human rights violations,” including technology companies involved in online censorship.

The wording of the sanctions on this part are vague and meant to be interpreted as broadly as possible, with the sanctions covering even people “purported” to be linked to companies involved in such deals.

New rounds of sanctions are imposed regularly every few weeks, and while officials have expressed pleasure at the damage that they have done to Iran’s economy, they have mostly harmed the civilian economy, while regime-run businesses are able to find ways to circumvent the bans.

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