Trump says anyone trading with Iran will not trade with US as sanctions come into force
US President Donald Trump has warned that any country trading with Iran will “not be doing business with the United States.” The threat comes as sanctions against the country came into effect at midnight.
The announcement came via the president’s usual medium of communication, Twitter, where Trump announced that the sanctions taking hold were “the most biting ever imposed.”
Trump also promised that Washington will “ratchet up” the economic pressure on the Islamic Republic in November, and said that other nations found to be trading with Iran would not find a trading partner in the United States.
“I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!,” US president concluded.
The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2018
Tuesday’s sanctions will see Iran prevented from using US currency as well as being barred from trading in cars and metals and minerals that include gold, steel, coal and aluminium, affecting Iran’s ability to buy US and European aircraft.
In November, Trump is expected to ratchet up the pressure on Iran by blocking Iranian oil exports, potentially halting some 2 million barrels a day, or 50 percent of Iran’s output, according to the BBC.
Allies China and Russia may intervene to help keep its industry afloat.
READ MORE: Iranians changing money for gold ahead of US sanctions
The International Monetary Fund said in March that Iran's net official reserves could decline this year to $97.8bn, which would finance about 13 months of imports. And analysts at BMI Research say Iran's economy could contract by 4.3 percent in 2019.
The re-imposed sanctions came into effect overnight, and follow Washington’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as the Iran nuclear deal.
Negotiated by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and backed by the European Union, Russia, and China, the Iran deal sought to lift economic sanctions imposed on Tehran as part of an agreement to curb the nation's nuclear program.
Trump has previously blasted the accord as skewed in favor of Iran and has labelled the deal as “one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
His position is a odds with the one held by the EU, who have stood by the deal saying that they would protect firms doing "legitimate business" in the face of US sanctions.
Trump’s latest remarks are likely to further escalate tensions with the bloc, which had seen the easing of sanctions as a way to keep Iran within the diplomatic fold.
Prior to the renewed sanctions taking effect, European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said the EU is encouraging investors to maintain business ties with Iran to preserve the nuclear deal, despite the US withdrawal.
“We are doing our best to keep Iran in the deal, to keep Iran benefiting from the economic benefits that the agreement brings to the people of Iran, because we believe that this is (in) the security interests not only of our region but also of the world. If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained,” she said on Monday.
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