The Trump administration announced the re-implementation of harsh sanctions on Iran Friday, a result of President Trump's decision to leave the Iran nuclear agreement earlier this year.
President @realDonaldTrump is reimposing all sanctions lifted under the unacceptable Iran deal. The U.S. is reimposing the toughest sanctions ever on Iran, targeting many of the corrupt regime’s critical sectors.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 2, 2018
Making things more interesting, President Trump tweeted out a photo about the sanctions using a famous "Game of Thrones" theme.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018
The sanctions will officially go back into place one day before the 2018 midterm elections on Monday, November 5.
"On November 5th, the United States will reimpose sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal on Iran’s energy, ship building, shipping, and banking sectors. These sanctions hit at the core areas of Iran’s economy. They are necessary to spur changes we seek on the part of the regime," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explained Friday morning. "In order to maximize the effect of the President’s pressure campaign, we have worked closely with other countries to cut off Iranian oil exports as much as possible. We expect to issue some temporary allotments to eight jurisdictions, but only because they have demonstrated significant reductions in their crude oil and cooperation on many other fronts and have made important moves towards getting to zero crude oil importation. These negotiations are still ongoing. Two of the jurisdictions will completely end imports as part of their agreements. The other six will import at greatly reduced levels."
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to put pressure on European countries to abandon their support for Iran.
Smart SWIFT move by @stevenmnuchin1 @USTreasury. Expel designated Iran banks. Cut access to global financial system. Establish humanitarian channel. Recommend: force Iran to spend escrow oil money on humanitarian. Caution: Iran exploits humanitarian exceptions to sanctions bust.
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) November 2, 2018
Mnuchin: “@USTreasury will add more than 700 names to our list of blocked entities. This includes hundreds of targets previously granted sanctions relief under the JCPOA, as well as more than 300 new designations. This is substantially more than we ever have previously done.”
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) November 2, 2018