US slaps new sanctions on Iran under Trump's failed 'maximum pressure'
The United States has imposed its first set of sanctions on Iran after US President Donald Trump revived his so-called maximum pressure strategy against the Islamic Republic.
In a statement on Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce announced the news, saying the White House unleashed its first set of sanctions against Iran’s crude oil export to China.
The move came two days after Trump said he was willing to revive negotiations with Iran but signed an executive order, restoring his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
The US accused the “network” targeted Thursday of facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China, funding Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff.
According to the Treasury Department, entities and individuals in China, India and the UAE were all sanctioned.
The US Treasury Department said the sanctions were aligned with Trump’s memo issued earlier this week to restore the “maximum pressure” campaign on the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that Trump's reimposition of “maximum pressure” against Tehran would end in “failure” as it did during his first term.
“I believe that maximum pressure is a failed experiment and trying it again will turn into another failure,” Araghchi said, emphasizing that repeating this failed experiment would only result in “maximum resistance.”
“Smart people ought to choose ‘Maximum Wisdom’ instead,” stressed Iran’s top diplomat.
On Tuesday, Trump restored his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, even though he was “unhappy to do it.”
During his campaign trail for the second term, Trump had told an event in New York in September that if elected, he would use sanctions as little as possible because using sanctions ultimately “kills your dollar and it kills everything the dollar represents”.
“Look, you’re losing Iran. You’re losing Russia. China is out there trying to get their currency to be the dominant currency, as you know better than anybody,” he said then.
The New York Times on Tuesday said that Trump also tried maximum pressure in 2018, after he withdrew the US from the nuclear accord that Iran had struck with the Obama administration three years earlier.
"Mr. Trump still claims that was a major victory, but most outside analysts say it backfired," the paper wrote.
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