July 13, 2012

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration announced new Iran sanctions targeting what it said were front entities that facilitated Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

Statements by the U.S. Treasury and State Department on Thursday named dozens of companies, institutions and individuals that the Obama administration alleges to be part of a web that advances a nuclear weapons program and obscures efforts to expose it.

The order also identifies dozens of shipping vessels already targeted for sanctions and that it says have been renamed.

The new sanctions come as the European Union applies new sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, part of a bid by the West to force Iran to make more transparent its nuclear activities.

“Today’s actions are the next step on that path, taking direct aim at disrupting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as its deceptive efforts to use front companies to sell and move its oil,” David Cohen, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism, said in a statement.

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