ISLAMABAD – The Trump administration is reportedly expected to announceadditional sanctions on Iran within the coming week, targeting new sectionsof the Iranian economy.
The Trump administration plans to target a new sector of the Iranianeconomy with a package of sanctions to be introduced on Wednesday, twosenior administration officials told Axios news portal, speakinganonymously as they were not authorized to reveal the new sanctions. Theofficials would not say what sector the administration will target, but itwon’t be the energy sector.
Trump officials point to three possible outcomes of these efforts: Iran isforced to come back to the negotiating table to offer the US a morefavourable nuclear deal; Iran’s leaders will be forced to decide howto spend the fading revenues, especially as flash floods and desert locustsbesiege the Iranian countryside; or the collapse of the regime. The sourcessaid that US national security advisor John Bolton has long hoped for “theoverthrow of the mullahs’ regime in Tehran,” though the Trumpadministration claims its official policy is not regime change.
The officials also suggested that Iran’s reaction to the new sanctionsmight be “highly unpredictable” and as a result the administration is“extremely mindful of security here at home.”
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Long-standing tensions between Iran and the United States took a turnfor the worse in May 2018, when Washington unilaterally withdrew from theIran nuclear deal and began slapping Iran with several rounds of sanctions,including energy restrictions aimed at bringing Iran’s oil exports down “tozero”, as well as banking restrictions and other measures meant to cripplethe country’s economy. -Sputnik
