US President Donald Trump on Monday pledged that firms doing business with Tehran would be barred from the US as new US sanctions against Iran took effect, despite pleas from Washington’s allies.
Iran dismissed a last-minute offer from the Trump administration 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.
Trump decided this year to pull out of the agreement, ignoring pleas from the other world powers that had cosponsored the deal, including Britain, France and Germany, as well as Russia and China.
Photo: AP
The European countries have promised to try to mitigate the impact of renewed US sanctions to persuade Tehran to continue to abide by the deal’s terms.
However, that has proven difficult: European companies have pulled out of Iran, arguing that they cannot risk the prospect of damage to their US business.
“These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!” Trump tweeted yesterday.
Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton on Monday said Iran’s only chance of escaping sanctions would be to take up an offer to negotiate with Trump for a tougher deal.
“They could take up the president’s offer to negotiate with them, to give up their ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs fully and really verifiably,” Bolton told Fox News.
“If the ayatollahs want to get out from under the squeeze, they should come and sit down. The pressure will not relent while the negotiations go on,” said Bolton, one of the US administration’s main hawks on Iran.
Washington accepts that Iran has complied with the terms of the 2015 deal reached under former US president Barack Obama, but says the agreement is flawed because it is not strenuous enough.
Iran says it will continue to abide by the deal for now, if other countries can help protect it from the economic impact of Washington’s decision to pull out.
The sanctions that took effect on yesterday target Iranian purchases of US dollars, metals trading, coal, industrial software and its auto sector.
In a speech hours before the sanctions were due to take effect, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected negotiations as long as Washington was no longer complying with the deal.
“If you stab someone with a knife and then you say you want talks, then the first thing you have to do is remove the knife,” Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
“We are always in favor of diplomacy and talks … but talks need honesty,” Rouhani said.
He dismissed the proposal for talks as a stunt to sow chaos in Iran and confuse US voters at home ahead of mid-term elections in November.
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