On the one-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, President Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions on Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum, and copper industries, ratcheting up what he calls a “maximum pressure” campaign against the rogue regime.
Noting that Iran gains significant revenue through metal exports, the order states that it is U.S. policy to deny the Iranian government funds that “may be used to provide funding and support for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorist groups and networks, campaigns of regional aggression, and military expansion.”
In a written statement after issuing the order, Trump said the sanctions would have a big impact on Iran’s economy. The administration has already targeted oil — Iran’s biggest export — in recent months.
“Today’s action targets Iran’s revenue from the export of industrial metals — 10% of its export economy — and puts other nations on notice that allowing Iranian steel and other metals into your ports will no longer be tolerated,” Trump said. “Tehran can expect further actions unless it fundamentally alters its conduct.”
The news came the same day Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that the country would stop complying with parts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and begin violating the nuclear treaty by stockpiling low-enriched uranium and heavy water.
A White House official said earlier Wednesday that new sanctions were coming but did not specify the scope or what industry the sanctions would target. This week, the United States deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East in response to “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran.
In his Wednesday statement on the new round of sanctions, Trump said that the U.S. plan to squeeze Iran financially is working.
“Because of our action, the Iranian regime is struggling to fund its campaign of violent terror, as its economy heads into an unprecedented depression, government revenue dries up, and inflation spirals out of control,” he said. “We are successfully imposing the most powerful maximum pressure campaign ever witnessed.”
