Fresh sanctions are included in the U.S. $633-billion military bill for 2013 which President Barack Obama signed into law on Wednesday night.
As far as the issue of fresh sanctions against Iran is concerned in the bill, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and its CEO Ezzatollah Zarghami have been targeted with every foreign commercial entity prohibited from conducting business transaction with the IRIB. Furthermore, all the IRIB assets in the U.S. are frozen as per for the new sanctions bill.
The sanction against IRIB is an attempt by the West to silence Iranian media. It is on top of another flagrant violation of freedom of speech by satellite providers Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA which stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels in October.
In November, the Hong Kong-based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) also took all Iranian channels off air in East Asia under pressure from the US.
In a similar move in December, Spain's top satellite company Hispasat ordered its satellite provider Overon to take Iranian channels Press TV and Hispan TV off the air.
The United States, the Israeli entity and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
These accusations come as the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has for several times reported that Iranian nuclear activities have not deviated from the peaceful path.
Iran has categorically refuted the allegations and argued that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and an active member of the IAEA, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
MOL/