Washington expanded sanctions against Iran

The U.S. has announced the list of additional U.S. measures including sanctions against Iran's Post Bank for its support of nuclear proliferation, officials said. That brings to 16 the number of Iranian-owned banks on the U.S. list. Post Bank is alleged to be a front for Iran's larger Bank Sepah, which had been hit by earlier U.S. sanctions.

Among the other new U.S. targets are five front companies and a list of more than 90 names of ships that Iran's national maritime carrier has been using to try to evade sanctions, the Treasury Department's Stuart Levey told the same White House briefing.

U.S. officials accuse that carrier, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, of changing the name of numerous vessels in a bid to skirt the sanctions. The company was first hit with U.S. sanctions in September 2008, the Associated Press informs.