Timeline: US sanctions on Iran in the last 45 years

November 1979 was the month the US imposed sanctions on Iran for the first time after Iranian students stormed the US embassy and took diplomats hostage earlier that year.

As part of the sanctions, the US froze $12 billion in Iranian assets, including bank deposits, gold, and other assets under the US jurisdictions, according to Al Jazeera. 

In the same year, the US also imposed a trade embargo on Iran, restricting its ability to engage in international trade and limiting its access to financial resources. 

Besides small gifts, information material, foodstuffs and some carpets, Iranian products were banned from import into the US.

The sanctions were eventually lifted in January 1981 as part of the Algiers Accords, a negotiated settlement that facilitated the release of the diplomats whom the Iranian students took hostage. 

Now that the US and its allies are planning fresh sanctions against Iran over its attack on Israel, here are some of the major embargoes the US has imposed on Iran over the past 45 years.

On 26 October 1987, then-US President Ronald Reagan placed an embargo on all US imports from Iran, according to the statement obtained from the US National Archives.

In March 1995, then-US President Bill Clinton issued executive orders that would prevent US companies from investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran. In May of the same year, Clinton banned US trade with and investment within Iran.

In April 1996, the US Congress passed a law requiring the US government to impose sanctions on foreign firms investing more than $20 million a year in Iran's energy sector.

In September 2006, the US government imposed sanctions on Bank Saderat Iran, banning it from dealing with US financial institutions, even indirectly. 

The move was announced by Stuart Levey, the then-undersecretary for treasury, who accused the major state-owned Iranian bank of transferring funds to certain groups, including Hezbollah. Bank Saderat Iran is still on the Sanctions list of the US Department of the Treasury.

In October 2007, the US announced new sanctions against Iran for "supporting terrorists". The sanctions cut more than 20 organisations associated with Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps from the US financial system and three state-owned banks.

On 24 June 2010, the US Senate and House of Representatives passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA) that imposed an import ban on rugs, pistachios and caviar originated in Iran. 

In May 2011, the US blacklisted the 21st Iranian state bank, the Bank of Industry and Mines, for transactions with previously banned institutions.

In November 2011, The US, UK, and Canada announced bilateral sanctions on Iran. 

While the US expanded sanctions to companies that aid Iran's oil and petrochemical industries, the UK mandated that all British financial institutions stop doing business with Iranian counterparts.

Two months later, in January 2012, the US imposed sanctions on Iran's central bank, the main clearing-house for its oil export profits. 

Iran, in turn, threatened to close off oil transport through the Strait of Hormuz.

In June 2012, the US banned the world's banks from completing oil transactions with Iran. It also exempted seven major customers — India, South Korea, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Turkey — from economic sanctions in return for cutting imports of Iranian oil.

In 2015, the US fined $258 million to Germany's largest bank Deutsche Bank for violating the US sanctions against Iran, Libya and Syria, according to a RadioFreeEurope article on 5 November 2015. 

The same year, the US agreed to cancel most of its sanctions against Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (also known as the Iran nuclear deal) which was signed in July 2025. 

The US agreed to cancel most of the sanctions against Iran, with some safeguard provisions, in return for limitations on Iran's nuclear program.

The deal was later withdrawn by US President Donald Trump in 2018, who cited concerns about Iran's missile program and regional influence.

In November 2018, the United States officially reinstated all sanctions against Iran that had been lifted before the United States withdrew from the JCPOA, according to a CNN report. 

In June 2019, Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei, his office, and those closely affiliated with his access to key financial resources. In July, the US placed sanctions on Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. 

In February 2021, US President Joe Biden said he would not lift economic sanctions against Iran until Iran complies with the terms of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei had previously said that Tehran would only return to compliance if the United States first lifted all economic sanctions.

In September 2022, the US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Iran Morality Police as well as seven senior leaders of Iran's various security organisations, "for violence against protestors and the death of Mahsa Amini".

In June 2023, the US Department of State announced sanctions on the network supporting Iran's missile and military programs involving seven individuals and six entities in Iran and the People's Republic of China (PRC).