WASHINGTON — The Trump administration hit Iran with fresh sanctions targeting its oil sales and the Hezbollah network, as part of a pressure campaign that the U.S. hopes will further hobble Tehranafter last month's strikeson its nuclear sites. The U.S. said it would sanction companies and vessels involved in the covert delivery and sale of Iranian oil. It also hit a financial institution it said was associated with Hezbollah, a militant group that's backed by Iran and the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. "AsPresident Trumphas made clear, Iran's behavior has left it decimated. While it has had every opportunity to choose peace, its leaders have chosen extremism," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. "Treasury will continue to target Tehran's revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime's access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities." Trump's administration has spent months trying to convince Tehran to enter into a nuclear deal that would put an end to Iran's uranium enrichment program. After five rounds of talks failed to produce an agreement, Israel launched a bombing campaign in June against Iran that the U.S. military later joined with airstrikes, deploying bunker-buster bombs that the Trump administration says destroyed Tehran's nuclear sites and its program back byat least a year. U.N. inspectors have not beenable to accessthe nuclear facilities. But the head of its nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Rafael Grossi, said the sites appear to have suffered "severe" but not "total damage" in an interivewwith CBS Newsthat was released on June 28. Trump said at a June 27 news conference that he did not "believe that they're going to go back into nuclear anytime soon." But if he did receive a report that Iran was enriching uranium at a level that concerns him, Trump said he would consider bombing the country again, "without question." "They're exhausted. And Israel's exhausted too," Trump said at another point. "The last thing they're thinking about right now is nuclear. You know what they're thinking of? They're thinking about tomorrow, trying to live. It's such a mess. It's such a mess. The place was bombed to hell." Iran's ambassador to the United Nations said afterwards on "Face the Nation" that the country will"never stop"its enrichment program. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Trump administration ramps up pressure on Iran with new sanctions
