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Iran news, video, and analysis from ABC News.
The Trump administration on Friday announced the reimposition of all US sanctions on Iran, the president of the United States. achievements.
The sanctions, which will take effect on Monday, cover Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors and the second batch of administration has reimposed since Trump withdrew from the landmark agreement in May. The rollback ends U.S. participation in the nuclear deal, which now hangs in the balance as Iran no longer enjoys any relief from sanctions imposed by the world's largest economy.
Shortly after the announcement, Trump tweeted on a movie poster-like image of "recantations," 5. "Sanctions are Coming, November 5."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are "aimed at fundamentally altering the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran." He has issued a list of 12 demands that Iran must meet if it wants the sanctions lifted. These include the support for terrorism and military engagement in Syria and their complete halt to its nuclear ballistic missile development.
The 2015 deal, one of the former President Barack Obama's largest diplomatic successes, has given Iran billions of dollars in sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, which many believe it was using to develop atomic weapons. Trump repeatedly denounced the agreement as the "worst ever" negotiated by the United States and the presidential campaign.
Trump and other criticisms of the deal said it gave Iran too much in return for too little, allowed Iran to be able to summarize nuclear activity that could not be used for other purposes.
With limited exceptions, the Iranian oil and foreign firms will be penalized by Iranian oil and foreign firms and the United States. companies, Iranian officials.
"Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave a normal country," Pompeo told reporters in a conference call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "Maximum pressure means maximum pressure."
Pompeo said eight nations will receive temporary waivers, and they will continue to import Iranian petroleum products for a limited period of time. He said those countries, which other officials said would include U.S. allies such as Turkey, Italy, India, Japan and South Korea, had made efforts to eliminate their imports but could not complete the task by Monday.
The waivers, expected to be announced Monday, will be valid for six months, during which time the importing country can buy Iranian oil but must deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account. Iran can spend the money only on a narrow range of humanitarian items. Pompeo said two of the eight countries.
Mnuchin said more Iranian companies and people would be added to the sanctions rolls. Those, he said, would not have been included under previous sanctions.
"We are sending a very clear message that the U.S. intends to aggressively enforce our sanctions," he said.
Israel, which considers Iran an existing threat and opposed the deal from the beginning, welcomed Friday's announcement.
"Thank you, Mr. President, for restoring sanctions against an Iranian regime that vows and works to destroy the Jewish state," Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said in a tweet.
Some Iran hawks in Congress and elsewhere, however, have been disappointed in the sanctions as they have been pushing for full disclosure of the world.
One group has had a lot of new sanctions but said there should be no exceptions.
"We encourage the Trump administration to fulfill the promise of a maximum pressure campaign – no exceptions – until the end of the year. "Oil and gas firms, including those of friendly countries like India, South Korea and Japan, should not be granted penalties waivers.", Similar entities, "SWIFT – must be severed with Iranian banks and financial institutions."
Mnuchin defended the decision to allow some Iranian banks to remain connected to SWIFT, saying that the Belgium-based firm has been warned that it will face penalties if sanctioned institutions are permitted to use it. And, he said that U.S. regulators would be closely watching Iranian transactions that would make sanctions punishable.
Pompeo, meanwhile, defended the oil waivers, saying U.S. efforts to cut Iran's petroleum revenue had already been successful. He noted that since May, when the US began to pressurize Iranian oil, Iran's exports had dropped by 1 million barrels per day.
Pompeo and Mnuchin both said the sanctions would have to do so, but Iran's supporters said the people of Iran would be reluctant to do business in the country for fear of being sidelined from the U.S. financial system.
They point to the fact that the Iranian economy is already reeling from the earlier sanctions with the currency losing half its value since the fruit, poultry, eggs and milk skyrocketing.
Obama-era officials and the other parties to the deal – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union – have vehemently defended it. The Europeans have moved away from the U.S. withdrawal, fearing that the new sanctions will drive Iran to pull out and resume all of its nuclear work.
