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Trump plans to cripple Iran with ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions

National security expert: ‘Trump is determined to reinstitute a maximum pressure strategy to bankrupt Iran as soon as possible.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

President-elect Donald Trump plans to financially cripple Iran and prevent its funding of terror proxies by applying “maximum pressure” through a program sanctions, particularly on oil exports, the Financial Times reports.

The sanctions aim to drastically reduce Iran’s oil exports, which are currently at 1.5 million barrels a day, up from 400,000.

The blow to Iran’s economy as the result of sanctions could prevent it from funding Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and its own terror activities.

“He’s determined to reinstitute a maximum pressure strategy to bankrupt Iran as soon as possible,” said a national security expert familiar with the Trump transition team.

Bob McNally, an energy consultant and former US presidential adviser, said the sanctions could leave Iran in a worse economic condition than it was during Trump’s first term.

“If they really go whole hog . . . they could knock Iran’s oil exports back to a few hundred thousand barrels per day,” he said.

He added, “It’s their main source of earnings, and their economy is already much more fragile than it was back then . . . They’re in a corner much worse than even the first term, and it would be a pretty bad situation.”

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The Financial Times reports that people “familiar with the President’s thinking” have said the maximum pressure strategy is intended to force Iran to make concessions in nuclear talks with the US.

“We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal,” Trump said while campaigning in September.

In his first term as President, Trump instituted a maximum pressure campaign against Iran with numerous sanctions after shelving the nuclear deal the US made with the Islamic Republic in 2015.

The sanctions remained in place during the Biden Administration but were not enforced strictly because of Biden’s strategy to seek a renewed nuclear pact with Iran.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, attempted to pass legislation when he was serving in Congress that would have imposed secondary sanctions on Chinese purchases of Iran’s crude oil.

“We’re hoping that it will be an incentive to get them to agree to negotiations in good faith that would stabilize relations and even someday normalize them, but I think Trump’s terms for that will be much tougher than the Iranians are ready for,” Waltz said.