US President announces fresh harsher Iran sanctions, warns of severing ties with anyone dealing with Iran

Washington: ‘Sanctions have officially been imposed on Iran and the United States will not be dealing with anyone who keeps trade relations with Iran. I am doing this for world peace,’ warned US President Trump. He further announced that the next, more important phase of sanctions against Iran will be completed in the month of November. This clearly indicates that the United States will primarily be targeting the European countries refusing to sever trade relations with the country.

President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Iran nuclear deal in the month of May. He had issued a deadline of three months to Iran and the European countries. Trump had proposed that either the European countries should also withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal or Iran should come forward to re-negotiate the deal accepting the conditions laid down by the United States. Last week the US President had reminded Iran and the European countries about the deadline and had said that he was open to having discussions with Iran at any time.

As Iran refused to budge from the nuclear deal signed in 2015, fresh sanctions have been imposed on Iran from Monday midnight, announced the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Within the next few hours President Trump issued warnings using the social media to Iran about the new sanctions and to the others continuing trade relations with Iran. These are the harshest sanctions imposed on Iran so far, and they will cause maximum damage to the country, asserted Trump.

Iran will not be able to transact in the Dollar because of the new sanctions. At the same time, there will be restrictions on the purchase of vehicles and planes, as well as on minerals like Gold, Steel, Coal, Iron and Aluminium from the US and Europe. Analysts claim that the Iranian economy which is already in doldrums will decline further.

From November, President Trump may impose stricter sanctions on the Iranian crude oil exports, claimed a British news channel. These sanctions will cause a reduction of 50% in the Iranian oil exports, said the news channel. Iran has already threatened that in such a scenario, it will close the Strait of Hormuz which can throttle the international trade.

Dialogue with the US not possible under the threat of sanctions – Iranian President Rouhani

Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani indicated that negotiations with the United States have been ruled out, saying that, “Iran is also willing for discussions with United States, but the discussions cannot happen under the threat of sanctions”. At the same time, President Rouhani also accused the US President of playing a psychological war tactics with Iran.

‘If you tell someone that you would like to have a discussion with him after stabbing him in the back, you would first then have to pull that knife out,’ warned Rouhani. President Rouhani said this during an interview with a news channel, before President Trump announced the sanctions. Meanwhile, Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief announced that the European Union was firm on the Iran nuclear deal despite the sanctions imposed by the United States.