The US Treasury has announced a new round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a continuing effort to punish the country for not being a compliant puppet for US capital, the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has placed further unjust restrictions on trade. The move was announced earlier today. (link)

It seems the US has begun pushing sanctions against Iran from another angle. Previously, they falsely claimed that Iran had violated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Israel was the only country to take such accusations seriously by presenting a large library of phony information, and information that was out-of-date already known about. The International Atomic Energy Agency has certified fifteen times that Iran has been in compliance with the agreement.

As a result, the European signatories to the JCPOA have refused to cooperate with US demands to enforce sanctions on Iran. Instead, they’ve retaliated against the US by offering economic compensation to Iran for the withdrawal of the US. The European Union has begun the construction of a serious of financial channels designed to allow Iran to evade those US sanctions. In addition, the EU has asked for the central banks of various European countries to assist Iran in the situation.

This tactic by the US has now changed. It appears that they’re attacking Iran on anti-terrorism grounds. They allege that certain companies and institutions in the country are assisting, or run by, the Basij Resistance Force (Basij), a paramilitary force subordinate to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The US treasury alleges (without evidence) that the organization is engaged in terrorism and using child soldiers. It seems more likely that the US is opposed to its use in the liberation of Syria from the US-backed terrorist forces.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “The Bonyad Taavon Basij network is an example of how the IRGC and Iranian military forces have expanded their economic involvement in major industries and infiltrated seemingly legitimate businesses to fund terrorism and other malign activities. This vast network provides financial infrastructure to the Basij’s efforts to recruit, train, and indoctrinate child soldiers who are coerced into combat under the IRGC’s direction” […] “The international community must understand that business entanglements with the Bonyad Taavon Basij network and IRGC front companies have real-world humanitarian consequences. This helps fuel the Iranian regime’s violent ambitions across the Middle East.”

The accusation of “violent ambitions across the Middle East” is wholly hypocritical in light of US imperialist ambitions in the region, as well as the rest of the world.

I think it’s fairly obvious that the new “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lie is not working on the international community as it did with Iraq and Libya. The tactic here is to accuse anyone who opposes the Iran sanctions as supporting terrorism. Nothing has been so disingenuous as the US so-called war on terror.