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President Trump on Tuesday ushered in “the most biting sanctions ever imposed” against Iran by warning countries against doing business with the Islamic theocracy – and declaring that he seeking nothing less than “WORLD PEACE.”
“The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level,” the president tweeted.
“Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States,” he added. “I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!”
Iran shot down a last-minute offer from the White House for talks, saying it could not negotiate while Washington had reneged on a 2015 deal to lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program.
The president decided this year to pull out of the agreement, ignoring pleas from the other world powers that had co-sponsored the deal, including from European allies Britain, France and Germany, as well as Russia and China.
Trump has said the landmark agreement had been “horrible,” leaving Tehran flush with cash to fuel the Mideast conflict.
Iran accused Washington of reneging on the nuclear agreement, signed by the Obama administration, and of causing recent Iranian economic unrest.
President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday slammed the economic sanctions, which came into effect overnight, as “psychological warfare” that aimed to “sow division among Iranians,” according to the BBC.
The sanctions take aim at various sectors, with further punitive action planned in November against Iran’s oil trade and central bank.
European allies said they “deeply regret” the US action and the European Union vowed to protect firms doing “legitimate business.”
Within hours of the sanctions taking effect, German automaker Daimler said it was halting its business activities in Iran, according to Agence France-Presse.
As the sanctions loomed Monday, Trump said in a statement: “We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces a choice: either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”
The president warned that those who don’t wind down their economic ties to Iran “risk severe consequences.”
With Post wires
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