The United States imposed sanctions Monday on Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a string of military chiefs, tightening pressure on the country that President Donald Trump threatened with “obliteration” if it seeks war.
Trump
signed the punitive financial measures against in the Oval Office, calling this
a “strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative
actions.”
Repeating
that “never can Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said it was now up to Tehran
to negotiate.
“We
do not ask for conflict,” he said, adding that depending on Iran’s response the
sanctions could end tomorrow — or it “can also be years from now.”
Expanding
on the new measures, the Treasury said the United States will blacklist Iran’s
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and block “billions” more in Iranian
assets, with eight top commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards already
added to the list.
Tensions
are running high after Iran shot down a US spy drone last week and Trump
considered, then canceled a retaliatory strike.
Iran,
crippled by existing US sanctions that include the blocking of most of its
crucial oil exports, sought to play down the US move.
“Are
there really any sanctions left that the United States has not imposed on our
country recently or in the past 40 years?” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman
Abbas Mousavi said shortly before Trump signed his order.
“We…
do not consider them to have any impact,” he said.
Amid
a flurry of diplomatic activity, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates urged “diplomatic solutions” in the standoff, which is
playing out in a region crucial to the global economy’s oil supplies.
French
President Emmanuel Macron said he would use a meeting with Trump at the G20
summit in Japan to urge “a constructive solution with the aim of ensuring
collective regional security.”
The
Kremlin, which has longstanding links to Iran’s government, earlier called
Monday’s sanctions “illegal.”
US
policy clear: Trump
At
home, Trump has taken criticism for sending mixed messages to Iran. However,
the US president insists he has a clear strategy that breaks firmly with past
US policy in the tinderbox Middle East.
In
a pair of tweets Monday, Trump said US aims regarding Iran boil down to “No
Nuclear Weapons and No Further Sponsoring of Terror.”
On
Sunday, Trump told an NBC television interview that if it came to war, Iran
would experience “obliteration like you’ve never seen before.”
Iran
insists that it does not have a nuclear weapons program.
It
signed onto an international pact in 2015 meant to ensure that its nuclear
industry sticks to civilian uses. Trump, however, pulled the United States out
of the deal in 2017, seeking its collapse.
But
while some in Washington see the White House’s ultimate goal as regime change
in Tehran, Trump says he wants to avoid war and that he’s open to negotiations
with Iran’s leaders.
He
also insists that Washington’s hands are freer than in the past because its own
energy production frees it of dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
This
means the United States should no longer be seen as the guarantor of open sea
lanes in the Gulf region, which saw two mysterious attacks in mid-June on
non-US tankers that Washington claims were carried out by Tehran.
“All
of these countries should be protecting their own ships,” Trump tweeted Monday.
“We don’t even need to be there.”
So
far, Trump’s carrot-and-stick message does not seem to be getting through to
Tehran.
“America’s
claim of readiness for unconditional negotiation is not acceptable with the
continuation of threats and sanctions,” Hesamodin Ashna, an advisor to Iran’s
President Hassan Rouhani, said Monday on Twitter.
–
International diplomacy –
The
dispute is bound up in a complex web of regional rivalries, with US allies
Saudi Arabia and Israel long pushing Washington to act aggressively against
Iran.
Israel’s
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his country, which is widely believed
to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal, would do “everything” to stop Iran
getting such a weapon.
In
New York, the UN Security Council was to meet later Monday at the request of
the United States to discuss the tensions.
US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled Monday to meet with Saudi leaders to
build what he called a “global coalition” against the Islamic republic.
Pompeo
met Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Red Sea city
of Jeddah and was later due to hold talks in the United Arab Emirates.
The
sultanate of Oman, meanwhile, said reports that it had served as a back channel
for the United States to Iran in the aftermath of last week’s drone shooting
were “not true.”
The
foreign ministry called on Iran and the United States via Twitter “to show
self-control and to resolve the pending issues through dialogue.”
Although
Trump backed away from a bombing strike in retaliation for last week’s drone
downing, US media reports said a US cyber attack took place against Iranian
missile control systems and a spy network.
On
Monday Iranian Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said no
cyber attack against his country had ever succeeded.
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