For the second time in as many days, the US State Department has unveiled a new round of sanctions against Iran, once again focused primarily on companies involved in the petrochemical industry, and once again nominally over rocket strikes in neighboring Iraq.
Details on the companies targeted are still emerging, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that they were enabling “the Iranian regime’s violent behavior,” and he directly blamed Iran for recent rocket fire at US forces in Iraq.
In practice, the US was blaming Iraqi militias for the strikes, accusing them of being Iranian proxies, and then tying the whole thing to Iran. In practice, it’s still not certain who did it, as a new faction with unknown affiliation claimed responsibility.
Blaming Iran is preferred by the US because it allows them to retaliate by continuing with sanctions they were likely already going to impose, and carrying out airstrikes against Iraqi targets on top of that for good measure.
State Dept Announces New Sanctions on Iran Over Iraq Rocket Attacks
Pompeo blames Iran directly for rocket attacks in Iraq
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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