State Department sanctions seven entities, individuals for supporting Iranian weapons procurement

The State Department said Wednesday that the United States is sanctioning seven individuals and entities for supporting Iran's' Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps weapons procurement.

The sanctions are part of the U.S.' efforts to ramp up economic pressure on the Iranian regime after it resumed attacking ships that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz earlier this month.

Fighting has also returned to the region after the U.S. and Iran traded missile strikes in retaliation for the strikes on the vessels traveling through the Strait.

The department said it was sanctioning four people and three entities for supporting weapons procurement for the IRGC and the actions reinforce United Nations Security Council resolutions that restrict Iran’s proliferation-related activities.

"Despite good faith efforts by the United States to implement the Memorandum of Understanding, Iran has continued to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, including through attacking commercial vessels," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

"These sanctions will disrupt the overseas procurement efforts and financial networks that sustain the IRGC’s weapons capabilities," he continued. "The United States will continue to deny the IRGC and the Iranian government access to resources that sustain their destabilizing activities."

It also comes a day after the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control levied new sanctions against Iran's illicit shipping and sanctions evasion network, led by Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.

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