President Donald Trump has announced tough new sanctions against Iran for what he calls increasingly aggressive behavior toward the U.S. and its interests. The President made the announcement this morning from the Oval Office.
“We will continue to increase pressure on Tehran until the regime abandons its dangerous activities and aspirations, including the pursuit of nuclear weapons, increased enrichment of uranium, engagement in and support for terrorism, fueling of foreign conflicts, and belligerent acts directed against the United States and its allies,” the President said.
“I look forward to the day when sanctions can be finally lifted and Iran can become a peaceful, prosperous and productive nation. That can go very quickly. It can be tomorrow. It can also be in years from now,” he added.
“So I look forward to discussing whatever I have to discuss with anybody that wants to speak. In the meantime, who knows what’s going to happen, I can only tell that you we can not ever let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And it won’t happen,” the President said.
The new sanctions target Iran’s Supreme Leader the Ayatollah Ali Khameni and members of his inner circle.
The sanctions “will deny the Supreme Leader and the Supreme Leader’s office and those closely affiliated with him and the office access to key financial resources,” President Trump said. They “represent a strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions.”
The U.S. and Iran have come to the brink of military conflict in recent days after Iran shot down an unmanned U.S. military drone last week. Iran said the drone violated Iranian airspace. The U.S. maintains the drone’s flight path kept it in international airspace at all times.
Photo by The White House via Flickr