"Iran has a choice to make. We are going to continue to respond to their behavior in an ongoing way, at an appropriate level to continue to pressure them to change their behavior," a senior administration official told reporters.
"These are just initial steps in response to Iranian provocative behavior," the official said on a conference call, suggesting more could follow if Tehran does not curb its ballistic missile program and continues support in regional proxy conflicts. The administration was "undertaking a larger strategic review" of how it responds to Iran.
Those affected by the sanctions cannot access the US financial system or deal with US companies and are subject to "secondary sanctions," meaning foreign companies and individuals are prohibited from dealing with them or risk being blacklisted by the United States.
The White House said that while the sanctions, the first actions against Iran by the US government since President Donald Trump took office, were a reaction to recent events, they had been under consideration before.
Though the measures are similar to actions taken by the Obama administration targeting Iran's ballistic missile network and the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the White House said they were just opening shots in plans to go after Iran and that a landmark 2015 deal to curb Iran's nuclear program was not in the best interest of the United States.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Friday ahead of the announcement: "Iran unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people. We will never initiate war, but we can only rely on our own means of defense".
The new designations stuck to areas that remain under sanctions even with the 2015 nuclear deal sealed between Iran and world powers in place, such as the Revolutionary Guards, an elite military body that is powerful in Iranian politics and the economy, and Iran's ballistic missile program. Zarif led Iran's delegation at the nuclear negotiations in 2015.
The new sanctions' impact will be more symbolic than practical, especially as they do not affect the lifting of broader US and international sanctions that took place under the nuclear deal.
Also, few of the Iranian entities being targeted are likely to have US assets that can be frozen, and US companies, with few exceptions, are barred from doing business with Iran.
Meanwhile, the US moved a Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen to protect waterways from Houthi militia aligned with Iran.
Designations
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Friday expressed understanding over the sanctions, saying Iran's missile test last Sunday was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
However, Gabriel warned against conflating Sunday's test with the nuclear deal. The White House said the sanctions made clear the nuclear deal was not in Washington's best interest.
US Senator John McCain welcomed Trump's decision, saying "for too long, a myopic focus on the Iran nuclear deal blinded the United States to Iran's persistent campaign to destabilise the Middle East and undermine America's national security interests".
The US Treasury, which listed the individuals and entities affected on its website, said the sanctions were "fully consistent" with US commitments under the nuclear deal.
Some of the entities involved are based in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and China.
Among those affected were companies, individuals and brokers the US Treasury said support a trade network run by Iranian businessman Abdollah Asgharzadeh.
Treasury said he supported Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, which the United States has said is a subsidiary of an Iranian entity that runs Iran's ballistic missile program.
Treasury also imposed sanctions on what it said was a Lebanon-based network run by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Hasan Dehghan Ebrahimi, a Beirut-based official with the Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force, which runs its operations abroad, was put under sanctions for acting on behalf of the Qods Force, Treasury said.
Three Lebanese companies involved in waste collection, pharmaceuticals, and construction were also listed under the sanctions for being owned or controlled by Muhammad Abd-al-Amir Farhat, one of Ebrahimi's employees.
Treasury said he has facilitated millions of dollars in cash transfers to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Two of his employees and a company he manages were also sanctioned. Treasury said Ebrahimi and his employees used a Lebanon-based network to transfer funds, launder money, and conduct business.
