US Adds Freeze of Assets to Iran Sanctions

“This is an implementation of the central bank sanctions, designed to primarily target Iranian oil sales,” Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. “The goal here is to essentially significantly increase the risk for all market participants” who settle oil trades in US dollars, he said. …

“In the past three months, you have seen an unprecedented intensification of these sanctions in ways that few people contemplated a year ago,” Dubowitz said. “This likely
is just the beginning of what we’re going to see in 2012.”