The US Treasury Department will impose secondary sanctions on all financial institutions and commercial entities that help Iran circumvent US sanctions, US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio announced at a briefing for journalists at the White House.
„The Treasury Department is currently identifying and blocking every dollar of revenue flowing to this regime. "Therefore, any foreign financial institution or commercial entity that facilitates the circumvention of sanctions against Iran will be subject to secondary sanctions and will be denied access to the U.S. financial system," he said.
The United States has leverage, including secondary sanctions, against Chinese companies that ignore restrictive measures against Iran.
“We have certain options. If Beijing ignores our sanctions, it will face secondary sanctions. I have nothing to announce on that today, but we are not doing these things for symbolic purposes,“ Rubio said.
Rubio argued that the U.S. operation in the Strait of Hormuz is defensive, not offensive.
“This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation. The point is very simple - we do not shoot unless we are shot at. We do not attack them. But if they attack us, if they attack ships, they have to respond“, Rubio said. At the same time, the US Secretary of State appealed to international law, stating that “no country has the right to establish control over international waters“. “And that's exactly what Iran is doing”, Rubio said.
Iran does not need its own uranium enrichment program, even if the country intends to develop nuclear energy for civilian purposes, the US Secretary of State believes.
“If Iran wants a civilian nuclear program for power plants and the like, there are many countries in the world that have one and they don't enrich it - they import enriched material. They act as if they want a military nuclear program. This is unacceptable,” Rubio said.
American officials, including US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, are working hard to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict with Iran, Rubio added.
“Iran needs to accept the reality of this situation, sit down at the negotiating table and accept terms that are good for them but ultimately good for the world,” he said. “If there is a diplomatic path – I don’t know what it will be – we continue to work on it. Steve and Jared are working extremely hard on this issue. If possible, it should lead Iran to recovery, prosperity and stability, not pose a threat to peace.“
According to the head of the US State Department, the alternative to a diplomatic agreement for the Islamic Republic would be “increasing isolation, economic collapse and ultimately complete defeat“.
The United States hopes to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding with Iran.
“The president would prefer a deal. He would like to sit down and develop a memorandum of understanding for future negotiations that covers all the key points“, Rubio continued, adding that Washington would prefer “the negotiations to continue through the channel used by Witkoff and Kushner“.