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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Friday announced it is exempting eight countries from tough sanctions on the US against Iran, reducing economic sanctions on what officials call Tehran's destabilizing activity in the Middle East. -East.
The announcement was made on the eve of the long-awaited deadline of 5 November for countries to stop importing Iranian products or be subject to financial penalties. He stressed the intransigent foreign policy of the Trump administration, much appreciated by Republicans, just days before the mid-term elections.
Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, has not identified the eight countries benefiting from a six-month waiver, but added that they include two that should end their Iranian oil imports "in a few weeks". Countries will have to reapply for extended exemptions after six months.
He also said the list of exemptions was much smaller than the 20 countries exempted from US sanctions under President Barack Obama, and that the Trump government had demanded much larger concessions in exchange.
The sanctions are aimed at "depriving the regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world," said Pompeo. He added that he hoped to impose changes allowing the "Iranian people to have the government not only that they want, but that they deserve".
The latest round of sanctions targets more than 700 companies, individuals and other entities in the oil, banking, maritime, shipbuilding and insurance sectors in Iran. Mr. Pompeo and the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, jointly announced the return of all previously imposed sanctions, which will come into effect Monday, during an appeal to reporters.
The sanctions were promised in May, when President Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from the 2015 agreement with the world powers to curtail the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran's oil exports plunged 1.5 million barrels in May to 1.5 million barrels a day, officials said. The economic crisis has hammered the Iranian currency, the rial, which, according to officials and experts, has lost more than two thirds of its value.
The sanctions are aimed at forcing Tehran to put an end to what the United States considers to be Iran's destabilizing activities in the Middle East, including its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran's leaders insisted that they did not intend to reward Mr. Trump's decision to abandon the nuclear agreement by acceding to his demands or even by opening a dialogue; just this week, The Danish authorities have accused Iran of attempting to assassinate an Arab separatist leader living in Denmark.
We do not know if Tehran will be able to hold out while its economy suffers. Iran has undertaken some of its most aggressive regional actions during the previous round of punitive sanctions between 2012 and 2015.
