The United States plans to impose new sanctions on Iran in the coming days to punish it for the attacks on Israel over the weekend, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, said in a statement that the sanctions would target Iran’s “missile and drone program” and entities that support the country’s military groups.
“These new sanctions and other measures will continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors,” Mr. Sullivan said.
Mr. Sullivan did not specify how the sanctions might undermine Iranian weapons programs, but a Treasury official, who declined to be named in order to discuss private deliberations, said the United States was looking at ways to cut off Iran’s access to military components that it uses to build weapons such as the drones that it used against Israel.
On Saturday night, Iran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed several senior Iranian military officials in Syria earlier in the month. Most of the missiles and drones were intercepted and shot down by Israel and its allies, including the United States and Britain.
The United States has imposed extensive sanctions on Iran over the years as part of a broad effort to put pressure on its economy and prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.
