2LT International News

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. President Donald Trump, who controversially reneged on the deal with Iran agreed to by his predecessor Barack Obama, has followed through on his vow to re-impose hard-hitting sanctions on Iran.

The sanctions which had been lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action of July 14, 2015 (the “JCPOA”) were re-imposed on Friday.

An unknown is the impact the sanctions will have on the price of oil, as the sanctions have targeted Iran’s energy sector as well as the related sectors of shipping and finance.

The sanctions previously collapsed the Iranian economy, sending its currency plunging. Just the announcement they would be introduced have throttled Iran’s economy again in recent months.

Trump has gone a step further with the re-imposition. He has threatened to punish countries that continue to import oil from Iran, or continue to do business with Iranian companies.

“President Donald J. Trump is re-imposing the toughest sanctions ever on Iran, targeting many of the corrupt regime’s critical sectors,” a White House statement released on Friday said.

The re-imposition of sanctions on Friday follows an initial raft of sanctions reimposed on 7 August this year. At that time the president repeated his displeasure with the Iran agreement.

“The JCPOA, a horrible, one-sided deal, failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence, and chaos,” he said without providing examples of what Iran is accused of.

Under the terms of the previous pact, Iran had to submit all sites for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections. Inspectors concluded Iran was in compliance, and in fact had not considered the establishment of nuclear weapons  since at least 2003.

Earlier this year Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the Mossad had obtained a stockpile of documents from an unguarded warehouse in Iran, and claimed they proved Iran was seeking nuclear weapons. The IAEA however dismissed the documents saying they were aware of them, and they had made no difference to their conclusions.

The Trump administration on Friday said the newly-imposed sanctions would target transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and certain Iranian financial institutions.

“Reimposing sanctions will cut off revenues the regime uses to bankroll terrorist groups, foment global instability, fund nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and enrich its leaders,” the White House statement said.

However, the sales of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices to Iran have always been and shall remain exempted from the sanctions, the statement said.

In the previous round of sanctions in August 168 individuals were targeted.

“These individuals were targeted for their ties to Iran’s support of terrorism, ballistic missile program, human rights abuses, criminal activities, and more,” Friday’s statement said.

Addressing a potential oil shortage or price escalation as Iran is pushed out of the market, the White House said it saw no issue with that, saying the government was “confident that energy markets will remain well supplied despite Iranian oil export reductions.”

“As a result of this increased production, respected forecasters like the United States Energy Information Administration expect global oil supply to keep pace with demand in late 2018 and exceed demand in 2019,” the statement said.