Obama Orders Sanctions Against Iran's Central Bank

President Obama issued an executive order today imposing tough new sanctions on Iran's Central Bank. The order freezes "all property and interests in property of the Government of Iran," and of "any Iranian financial institution." The sanctions were included in the controversial defense bill Obama signed a little over a month ago, but Obama is instituting them well ahead of the six-month deadline the bill imposed, the AP reports.

In a letter to Congress, Obama said sanctions were particularly necessary "in light of the deceptive practices of the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks." Before these sanctions, the US had only frozen assets belonging to specific Iranian individuals or entities, Bloomberg adds. (More Iran sanctions stories.)