© Carlos Barria / Reuters
The Treasury Department posted a listing on Friday, naming the individuals and the companies added to the sanctions list. Eight of the individuals are listed as Iranian citizens, three appear to be Chinese, and two Arab.
Most of the businesses listed in the announcement are based in Iran, though one of the entities is located in the United Arab Emirates, two are in China, and three are in Lebanon.
"Today's action is part of Treasury's ongoing efforts to counter Iranian malign activity abroad," said John E. Smith, acting director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.
"Iran's continued support for terrorism and development of its ballistic missile program poses a threat to the region, to our partners worldwide, and to the United States," Smith said. "We will continue to actively apply all available tools, including financial sanctions, to address this behavior."
US President Donald Trump has tweeted that "Iran is playing with fire," and warned Tehran that he won't be as "kind" as former President Barack Obama. His comments come after Tehran's missile test this week.
It comes a day after the US president threatened Tehran that military options are "not off the table" in response to the missile test.
On Monday, Fox News cited US officials as saying that Iran had carried out medium-range ballistic missile tests.
That was followed on Thursday by reports from CNN, NBC News and Reuters, all quoting sources, that said Washington could roll out fresh sanctions against Iran as early as Friday.
In another tweet posted on Thursday, Trump wrote that "Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse," but the US "gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran Deal: $150 billion."
Meanwhile, the guided missile destroyer USS Cole arrived in the waters off the coast of Yemen on Friday, where it will conduct patrols to "protect waterways" from the Houthi rebels, unnamed US officials told reporters.
"Iran is unmoved by threats as we derive security from our people," Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said ahead of the announcement.
"We will never use our weapons against anyone, except in self-defense. Let us see if any of those who complain can make the same statement," Zarif wrote.
In the two videos posted on his Twitter account, Zarif is seen explaining Iran's stance in a previous speech.
"You were not the subject of war, where your cities were showered with missiles carrying chemical warheads, and you didn't have a single missile to retaliate, so that maybe Saddam Hussein would stop," he said, referring to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.
"We went to one country after another, begging - I insist, begging - for a single scud missile to defend our people. Now, you want us to get a few dollars, and to abandon defending our people," he goes on to say, adding that Iran is "entitled to the rudimentary means of defense."
On Monday, Fox News quoted US officials as saying that Iran had conducted medium-range ballistic missile tests. Iran confirmed that it had tested the missile, and that the launch was "in line" with its plans.
"We will not allow foreigners to interfere in our defense affairs," Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan told Tasnim news agency on Wednesday.
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