By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
President Trump is set to unleash on Monday the “toughest” economic sanctions the U.S. has ever imposed on the Republic of Iran. The Trump administration is reinstating all sanctions removed under the 2015 nuclear deal, targeting both Iran and states that trade with it. The sanctions will target Iran’s crucial sectors of its economy including oil exports, shipping and banks.
“The Iran sanctions are very strong. They are the strongest sanctions we’ve ever imposed. And we’ll see what happens with Iran, but they’re not doing very well, I can tell you,” President Trump said. Trump tweeted a bizarre “Game of Thrones”-style image of himself with the words “sanctions are coming.” The tweet immediately came under fire from HBO
for its reference to “Winter is coming”, the famous motto of the House Stark in the HBO series.
‘We would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes,’
European companies doing business with Iran not allowed to do biz with U.S., according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“The European companies will not be permitted to do business with both the United States and with Iran, frankly since May, since the President’s announcement of withdrawal from the ill-fated agreement, Pompeo said in a statement distributed by the Department of State.
“European companies have fled Iran in great numbers. Hundreds of businesses have departed Iran. The whole world understands that these sanctions are real, that they are important, that they drive the Iranian people’s opportunity to make the changes in Iran that they so desperately want and stop Iran from having the wealth and money that they need to continue to foment terror around the world,” Pompeo said.
Why Donald Trump’s Iran sanctions won’t work: The Spectator
“The White House is, in its head, playing out a drama where it imposes sanctions and brings the Ayatollahs to heel. In reality, things are working out very differently. When it comes to the goal of containing Iran, Trump is indeed living in a fantasy land.”
