Expert: White House’s New Iran Sanctions For Ballistic Missile Violations Are “Bare Minimum”

Facing strong bipartisan Congressional pressure, the Obama administration is preparing to impose new sanctions on Iran for its illicit ballistic missile program, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) Wednesday. But one expert is characterizing the new sanctions as being the “bare minimum” the administration could do under the circumstances.

The new sanctions, which the Treasury Department will announce next week, come in the wake of two Iranian ballistic missile tests in October and November. A United Nations panel formally found two weeks ago that the October launch violated United Security Council Resolution 1929.

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However, some regional experts were skeptical that the sanctions would be enough. “While the Obama administration has finally done something to push back against illegal Iranian ballistic-missile testing, these latest measures are the bare minimum,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Journal. Jonathan Schanzer, the think tank’s vice president for research, told Business Insider that since Iran is poised to rejoin the international banking system and the SWIFT financial transaction network, the new sanctions amount to “window dressing.”

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