Trump: Iran sanctions ‘will soon be increased, substantially’

U.S. urges the other world powers who were part of the nuclear deal not to give in to Iran’s “nuclear extortion.”

By World Israel News Staff and AP

President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to ratchet up sanctions on Iran and again denounced the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with world powers, from which the U.S. president withdrew in May 2018.

On the heels of Iran’s move to step up its enrichment of uranium beyond the cap set by the nuclear accord, Trump tweeted: “Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!”

He repeated his earlier assertion that “Iran has long been secretly enriching.”

Iran’s representative to international organizations in Vienna, Kazem Gharib Abadi, told a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday that U.S. actions were “neither legitimate nor legal” and should not be accepted by the international community. He argued that American sanctions “should be seen as weapons of warfare” because of their “costly” consequences.

The Iranian representative said that Tehran is prepared to return to “full implementation” of its landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but only when matched by the full compliance of “all participants.”

U.S. Ambassador Jackie Wolcott told the IAEA gathering that Iran’s recent moves to enrich uranium beyond the deal’s limits amounted to “nuclear extortion.”

She urged the other world powers who were part of the nuclear deal not to give in to Iran’s demands by providing new economic incentives in order to get Tehran to reverse the recent escalation of its atomic program.

“We are committed to denying Iran the benefits it seeks from these most recent provocations,” she said. “It is imperative that this misbehavior not be rewarded, for if it is, Iran’s demands and provocations will only escalate.”

Russian delegate Mikhail Ulyanov fired back at the meeting that the U.S. could not both reject the deal and call for Iran’s full implementation of it.

President Hassan Rouhani told a visiting French presidential envoy that Iran has left the door open for diplomacy on the 2015 nuclear deal.

The U.S. Trump administration and Israeli government say that components of the deal do not go far enough in imposing inspections on nuclear facilities, do not restrict the production of ballistic missiles, expire after just 10-15 years, and do not address Iran’s destabilizing activity in the region, including its support of Hezbollah and Hamas along Israel’s borders and Iran’s own entrenchment in Syria.

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