US President Donald Trump has threatened sanctions on countries that are purchasing oil from Iran. Trump has announced secondary sanctions on countries who buy Iranian oil or petrochemicals as Washington intensifies a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran amid faltering talks over its nuclear programme.
“ALERT: All purchases of Iranian Oil, or Petrochemical products, must stop, NOW! Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions,” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social Platform.
“They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form.”
Trump has taken a tough line on Iran, escalating sanctions targeting its energy sector after announcing in February a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero.
The U.S. president with his threat on social media would be going after Iran’s major economic resource.
It was unclear how and when the latest measures would be implemented.
To remind, Trump signed the presidential memorandum reimposing Washington’s tough policy on Iran that was practiced throughout his first term.
Trump’s memo, among other things, orders the US Treasury secretary to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions.
In 2020, President Trump declared that “as long as [he is] President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
The warning came after the US Department of State announced Wednesday sanctions against seven entities allegedly engaged in Iranian petroleum products and petrochemical products trade.
The department highlighted that the action targets four sellers and one purchaser of Iranian petrochemicals valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.
It also sanctioned a marine management company that it said plays a “key role” in transporting Iranian petroleum products, along with an Iran-based cargo inspection company.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a Fox News interview last week said President Trump is committed to staying out of an armed conflict and said that’s why he’s directed officials to jumpstart nuclear talks with Iran.
Mr Rubio’s comments underscore the major remaining divisions in talks between the countries to resolve the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“You also have to make sure – if you really want to prevent a nuclear program, okay, and you’re not building a nuclear weapon, then you should open all your facilities. One of the failures of the Biden -I’m sorry – of the Obama nuclear deal with Iran is that you could not inspect military sites. Well, if you’re making nuclear weapons, you would probably make them on a military site. And by the way, it’s been known and discovered that in the past Iran has had a secret nuclear program that it did not disclose to the world,” Mr Rubio said in the interview.
