YEREVAN, APRIL 2, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. government is considering additional sanctions against Iran that would target areas of its economy that have not been hit before, Reuters reported citing a senior official in the Trump administration.

The official said the administration aimed to follow through with new sanctions around the first anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers, which President Donald Trump announced last May.

“We just want a continued chilling effect,” the official said. “We want businesses to continue to think doing business with Iran is a terrible idea at this point.”

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration hoped to take the additional measures in the coming weeks.

“The more we can do around the anniversary, the better,” the official said, while adding that it takes time to put such sanctions together and that the U.S. Treasury Department was working on them.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan