On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Surveillance,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby argued that the U.S. has been strict with enforcing its sanctions on Iran, but “other nations have to enforce their sanctions as well, and certainly, we talk with them about that.”
During a discussion on the money unfrozen under the Biden administration’s prisoner swap with Iran, co-host Lisa Abramowicz asked, “A lot of people have said that this is sort of just a distraction from the real issue, which is that, essentially, Iran is getting a ton of money through the exports of oil, particularly to China, despite sanctions, and the sanctions have been somewhat lightened. How much is the U.S. talking about enforcing the sanctions in a more significant way or the ineffectiveness of those sanctions?”
Kirby responded, “I would push back a little bit on the idea that sanctions have been latent. We have not lightened any of the sanctions. In fact, we’ve added additional sanctions, some 400 sanctions on Iran, just since the beginning of this administration. And we’re absolutely committed to full and total enforcement. Now, obviously, other nations have to enforce their sanctions as well, and certainly, we talk with them about that. But the United States has not backed off on any sanctions, quite the contrary, we’ve added and increased our enforcement capability. Not to mention, we have increased our military presence in the Gulf region and now, of course, in the Eastern Med to deter would-be actors, like Iran, who might want to try to take advantage of the situation.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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