US unveils new sanctions over Iran missile program
'Today's action, which targets this network that has facilitated the procurement of sodium perchlorate and dioctyl sebacate from China to Iran, is taken in support of the United States' maximum pressure campaign to curtail Iran's ballistic missile program and disrupt the activities of the IRGC, as outlined in the President's National Security Presidential Memorandum,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Sodium perchlorate is used to produce ammonium perchlorate.
Both ammonium perchlorate and dioctyl sebacate are chemicals usable in solid propellant rocket motors, which are commonly used for ballistic missiles, according to the Treasury Department.
'Iran's aggressive development of missiles and other weapons capabilities imperils the safety of the United States and our partners,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
'It also destabilizes the Middle East, and violates the global agreements intended to prevent the proliferation of these technologies. To achieve peace through strength, Treasury will continue to take all available measures to deprive Iran's access to resources necessary to advance its missile program,' he continued.
In March, the State Department announced it would offer a $15 million reward for information linked to four Chinese nationals it says have helped the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) procure U.S. military equipment and drone technology.
Officials said individuals would facilitate the sale of U.S. goods to front companies based in China that would send the technology to Iran. Iran would then transport products to the IRGC and its linked companies which Bruce said would soon end.
'The United States will continue to hold accountable those who seek to advance Iran's ballistic missile program, to include its procurement of propellant ingredients used for ballistic missiles,' the State Department spokesperson said in her Wednesday statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
'No deal': Takeaways from Trump's Alaska summit with Putin
WASHINGTON – Vladimir Putin caught a ride in the presidential limousine and achieved recognition on the world stage. Donald Trump flew more than 4,000 miles and rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader in Alaska – and left empty-handed after some three hours of negotiations. A much-hyped summit between Trump and Putin that saw the U.S. president flex his deal-making skills achieved no major breakthrough in peace negotiations over Russia's war against Ukraine. The talks culminated in a vague statement to the media in which Putin spoke of an 'agreement.' Trump was then left in the awkward position of declaring 'no deal' had been reached. A planned press conference? Called off. The two leaders spoke briefly and answered no questions. 'There were many, many points that we agree on,' Trump said without elaborating. 'A couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there,' he added. 'So there's no deal until there's a deal.' More: 'No deal': Live updates from Trump-Putin Alaska summit Trump said he'd be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO allies on his way home to debrief them on the conversation with his Russian counterpart, who had been isolated by western leaders after invading Ukraine in 2022. As the American president, who'd warned of 'severe consequences' if a ceasefire wasn't reached, waved goodbye to press while boarding Air Force One for Washington, Putin taxiied down the runway in the distance. Putin invokes 'root causes' of war, jabs Trump foe Biden For a television president who regularly fields questions from reporters, Trump's quick exit after the meeting was abnormal. The two men spoke for a combined 12 minutes – with Putin going first. He praised Trump for convening the meeting, saying relations between the two countries had fallen to their lowest point since the Cold War. But he soon brought up old charges about the 'root causes' of the conflict that he's long blamed on NATO enlargement and Ukraine's alignment with the West. And while Putin notably said 'the security of Ukraine should be secured' and Russia was 'prepared to work on that' he did not say what he had in mind. 'I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,' Putin added, without saying what it entailed. He then warned Ukrainian and European leaders not to 'throw a wrench in the works' with 'backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.' 'I just don't think we heard anything that signaled any sort of shift in Russia's maximal position,' David Salvo, a former State Department official who served in Russia. He cast Putin's comments as 'grandstanding' and said of security guarantees for Ukraine, 'I don't think he's ready to soften his position quite yet.' Putin also jabbed at former President Joe Biden and said he agreed with Trump's assertions that the war never would have happened if the Republican had won in 2020. Trump said Putin's comments were 'very profound.' He described the meeting as 'extremely productive' and said the two sides agreed on 'many points' without divulging the details. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,' Trump said. Trump leaves without a ceasefire agreement Hanging over the summit was a potential ceasefire, which Zelenskyy and European leaders thought could emerge from the talks. But expectations fell quickly as Trump talked up potential 'land swaps' that have been rejected by Zelenskyy. Trump sought to lower expectations ahead of the summit and cast the conversation as talks about future talks. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told CNN while the summit was happening, 'I think the best that we could hope for is that there is a commitment coming out of Putin to a ceasefire with enough contours to it that it is believable that it will be more than just a brief moment to check a box here.' The summit ended without any mention of a ceasefire by Putin or Trump, who repeated in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit that he believed an agreement was in sight. Trump added: 'Now it's up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.' He indicated that a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine was part of the discussion. Putin teases possible business deals with Trump First, there were joint hockey games. Then, there were films promoting 'traditional values.' And at their Alaska summit Putin made another enticement: potential economic investments. 'It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential," Putin said. "Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high tech and in space exploration. We see that arctic cooperation is also very possible.' Accompanying Putin at the summit was Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. The Putin adviser met with Witkoff in Washington in April. 'He's bringing a lot of business people from Russia. And that's good, I like that, because they want to do business,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way to Alaska. 'But they're not doing business until we get the war settled.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick came with Trump. Trump later referred to "tremendous Russian business representatives" at the summit and said "everybody wants to deal with us." In his Hannity interview, Trump indicated that Putin also tried to flatter him by saying the 2020 election he lost to Biden was 'rigged' and fanned baseless claims that the outcome was the result of widespread voter fraud. Trump rolls out the red carpet for Putin Putin received a warm reception in Alaska after years of being left out in the cold by western leaders. The summit began with Trump giving Putin an outreached hand, as the Russian leader walked down an intersecting red carpet on the tarmac to greet him. Trump clapped his hands in applause as Putin approached. They shook hands, patted each others' arms and walked together, posing for pictures on a platform with a sign reading 'Alaska 2025.' In the background: Military planes and personnel and green cloud-covered mountains. A reporter shouted "President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?" while Putin stood next to Trump on the platform. He gestured but didn't say anything. Trump and Putin rode together, without aides, to the summit in Trump's limousine. Gone was the frustration that Trump had expressed throughout the summer over Putin's reluctance to agree on a peace deal. 'I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir,' Trump said of his Russian counterpart as they shared a stage together in Alaska. Now what? Severe consequences? Secondary Tariffs? Another meeting? The lack of progress at the Trump-Putin summit raised questions about what comes next. Trump said he planned to speak with Zelenskyy and NATO leaders to brief them. He again talked about moderating a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy. And although he'd warned before the meeting that if Putin wasn't cooperative he would face 'severe consequences' and threatened tariff hikes on Russia's top trading partners, for now, he said he was letting China off the hook. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that,' Trump told Hannity. 'Now I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now, I think the meeting went very well." Trump's next moves will be closely watched to see if he maintains the friendly posture toward Putin that he took at the summit or takes a firmer approach. 'By framing it as a positive meeting, in his own mind, it takes the pressure off of himself to make Russia pay a price for continuing the war,' former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said. 'At least for right now.' Trump told reporters before the meeting that he was 'not looking to waste a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of money' negotiations and wanted to see the war quickly wrapped up. 'The wildcard now is whether Trump's actually going to get tough on Russia, or whether it's going to be in sort of endless talks and letting Russia stall for time,' said Salvo, managing director for the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
US Will Not Be Purchasing Any Bitcoin, Treasury Secretary Bessent Says
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoiled the dreams of Bitcoiners worldwide Thursday, stating outright that the federal government will not be purchasing additional Bitcoin to supplement its existing supply of the cryptocurrency. 'We're not going to be buying that,' Bessent said during a Thursday morning appearance on Fox Business. The Treasury Secretary did endorse the notion of a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve, which President Donald Trump established via a March executive order. But Bessent said such a reserve, which currently consists of Bitcoin seized by U.S. law enforcement,will only be grown in the future by similar seizures. 'We are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up,' Bessent said of the Bitcoin reserve. 'We're going to stop selling that.' The Treasury Secretary added he estimates the U.S. government's current Bitcoin holdings to equal between $15 billion to $20 billion in value at current prices. Bessent's comments mark a departure from previous statements by White House officials on the subject. For months, Trump officials have floated the possibility of the federal government purchasing additional Bitcoin. The prospect has thrilled many Bitcoin holders, both due to the legitimacy such acquisitions could grant the cryptocurrency, and the potential deflationary impact massive state-level purchases of the token could have on its price. In March, shortly after Trump established a federal strategic Bitcoin reserve, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks told Decrypt that Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would have the final say on determining whether to purchase additional Bitcoin via 'budget-neutral' methods, such as selling off other government reserve assets including gold. Ethereum ETF Inflows Outperform Bitcoin for the Third Day Straight For months, White House officials have since repeated the line that they want to 'acquire as much Bitcoin as possible.' But plans for such acquisitions never materialized in the months since the Bitcoin reserve's announcement. Late last month, the White House released a sprawling, 168-page report on crypto policy recommendations. Though it was supposed to include further information about the Trump administration's crypto reserve plans, it notably omitted any details on the subject. One of the most consistently vocal White House officials on the subject of purchasing Bitcoin was Bo Hines, executive director of the President's Working Group on Digital Assets. Since March Hines has repeatedly said, in private and in public, that the Trump administration wanted to acquire as much Bitcoin as it possibly could.'I've said that at every conference I've spoken at in the last two to three months,' Hines said during testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in June. Earlier this week, Hines announced he had left his White House role, effective immediately. UPDATE (August 14, 2025, 11:03 a.m. ET): Adds paragraphs about Hines. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bitcoin, Ethereum Fall as PPI Shock Squashes Hopes for Jumbo Rate Cut
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies slipped on Thursday after rising producer prices blunted rate-cut hopes, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the government wouldn't start cutting checks to flesh out its strategic Bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin changed hands around $118,000 on Thursday, a 2.9% decrease over the past day, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Ethereum also fell 2.9% to $4,560, while Solana and XRP dropped 2.4% to $194 and 5.7% to $3.07, respectively. The PPI report snapped a strong trading week for Bitcoin, with the asset's price setting a new all-time high above $124,000 on Wednesday, while Ethereum surged toward record levels. The Producer Price Index (PPI), which tracks price changes across a broad range of goods and services for producers, jumped 0.9% in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Thursday. Economists expected the index to rise 0.2% on a monthly basis. Representing the largest monthly increase since May 2022, Thursday's hotter-than-expected PPI reading showed an increase in the index's trade component, a worrying sign for the Federal Reserve, according to Liz Thomas, head of investment strategy at personal finance firm SoFi. 'The Fed will not like this report,' she said on X. The central bank has held interest rates steady so far this year, fearing that U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could make it harder to achieve its 2% inflation goal. As some officials have pointed to signs of fragility in the labor market recently, however, traders have grown increasingly confident that the Fed will cut rates at the conclusion of its September meeting. US Will Not Be Purchasing Any Bitcoin, Treasury Secretary Bessent Says Traders took a slight step back on Thursday, penciling in a 92.8% chance of a quarter-percentage-point rate cut at the conclusion of the Fed's next meeting compared to a 94.3% a day before, according to CME FedWatch. Citing large downward revisions for employment figures for May and June, Bessent advocated for a 50-basis-point rate cut on Tuesday. The odds of a jumbo-sized rate cut in September evaporated on Thursday, falling to 0.0% from 5.7% a day before. Although Bessent's comments may have worked in Bitcoin's favor earlier this week, with risk assets like stocks and crypto historically benefiting from lower interest rates, his latest comments appeared to dampen enthusiasm towards the coin on Thursday. The official said that the government is 'not going to be buying' Bitcoin to supplement its existing holdings of confiscated assets. Previously, the White House had teased purchasing Bitcoin to add to the nation's stockpile in a budget-neutral way. 'We are going to use confiscated assets and continue to build that up,' Bessent said of the Bitcoin reserve. 'We're going to stop selling that.'
