A report in Tuesday’s Sydney Morning Herald states that the government of Australia has adopted sanctions against certain Iranian entities including Bank Mellat, Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) and General Rostam Qasemi head of the IRGC’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Group.

The Australian decision follows a report in the New York Times detailing plans by the European Union to implement sanctions against Iran.  According to the report, these sanctions may eventually touch on Iran’s financial and energy sectors.  There appears to be a lack of consensus among EU states, and as such it will be interesting to see what the EU ultimately decides on.

Notably, the Financial Times has reported that there are certain legislative initiatives underway in the United States to sanction international banks engaging in business with Iran, in other words, third country institutions engaging in certain business with specific Iranian entities.

Given the very strong sanctions regime against Iran under current U.S. law, the U.S. government is arguably somewhat limited in using direct sanctions as leverage against Iran.  Conversely, the U.S.’ more recent strategy of dissuading third country financial institutions and other companies from doing business with Iran appears to be having a more direct impact on the Iranian economy.