Yellen fully expects fresh sanctions on Iran in coming days

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the US will strengthen its sanctions on Iran within days after the nation’s recent attack on Israel.

“I fully expect that we will take additional sanctions action against Iran in the coming days,” Yellen said at a press conference in Washington Tuesday. She also said that “all options” to disrupt Iran’s terrorist financing will be on the table, and that the US wouldn’t hesitate to work with allies to “continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity.”

Her comments come as finance ministers and central bank governors from across the world gather in Washington for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings. Geopolitical developments are set to once again dominate the discussions, with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continuing to pose a threat to the global economy.

“From this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers,” Yellen said.

Over the weekend, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missile against Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike against Iran’s consulate in Syria on April 1 that Tehran has blamed on Israel.

European Union officials are also contemplating fresh sanctions on Iran over the attack.

Over the course of the next few days the US will be looking to build a coalition with other countries to go after Iran’s military industrial complex, a senior Treasury official said.

Group of Seven finance ministers are holding a meeting on Wednesday and the US also plans to engage with allies on actions they can take together to go after supply chains that allow Iran access to component parts that are key to building the kind of weapons used in the recent attack against Israel, the official told reporters.

The US is going to have conversations with all major suppliers around the world, including China, in order to constrain Iran’s ability to get access to the goods used to build weapons and destabilize the region, the official added. 

Ukraine Aid

Western allies are expected to discuss the situation in Ukraine this week and seek to rally fresh financing against a backdrop of deepening concerns over the possible collapse of Ukrainian defenses.

Finance ministers from the G-7 are expected to discuss ways to tap the value of more than $280 billion of Russian central bank assets that have been immobilized as a way to raise much-needed funds for Ukraine.

The US had been pushing to confiscate the assets, or at least find ways to raise funds based on their expected future profits, but some G-7 peers including Germany and France remain cautious over such moves.