President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday against resuming its nuclear weapons program.
By World Israel News Staff and AP
President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday against resuming its nuclear weapons program as he imposed a fresh set of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The new sanctions target Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum and cooper sectors.
The move came on the one-year anniversary of the president’s announcement that he was pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program,” Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences. “I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.”
The comments came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that his country will begin keeping its excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program, setting a 60-day deadline for new terms to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, or it will resume enriching uranium, a key component of developing nuclear bombs.
The agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.
But President Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday in a televised address from the White House that it was “defective at its core.”
On Wednesday, he claimed the deal “was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East” and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest “that we’ve ever put on a country.”
Trump also pointed to Iran’s actions in countries including Syria and Yemen.
“With all of the places they’re involved, it’s bedlam and death and we can’t allow that to happen,” he said, adding: “They’ve gotta understand life. ’Cause I don’t think they do understand life.”
Europe eager for deal
U.S. allies in Europe had tried to keep President Trump in and lamented his move to abandon it. Iran’s leader ominously warned his country might “start enriching uranium more than before.”
The sanctions seek to punish Iran for its nuclear program by limiting its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals.
Major companies in the U.S. and Europe could be hurt, too. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that licenses held by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus to sell billions of dollars in commercial jetliners to Iran will be revoked. Certain exemptions are to be negotiated, but Secretary Mnuchin refused to discuss what products might qualify.
He said the sanctions will sharply curtail sales of oil by Iran, which is currently the world’s fifth largest oil producer. Secretary Mnuchin said he didn’t expect oil prices to rise sharply, forecasting that other producers will step up production.
Iran’s government must now decide whether to follow the U.S. and withdraw or try to salvage what’s left with the Europeans. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was sending his foreign minister to the remaining countries but warned there was only a short time to negotiate with them.
Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal, and told reporters Wednesday: “We’ll make either a really good deal for the world or we’re not going to make a deal at all.” He predicted Iran would choose to negotiate eventually, or face consequences.
The administration said it would re-impose sanctions on Iran immediately but allow grace periods for businesses to wind down activity. Companies and banks doing business with Iran will have to scramble to extricate themselves or run afoul of the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, for nations contemplating striking their own sensitive deals with President Trump, such as North Korea, the withdrawal will increase suspicions that they cannot expect lasting U.S. fidelity to international agreements it signs.
Former President Barack Obama, whose administration negotiated the deal, called President Trump’s action “misguided” and said, “The consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”
Mideast allies pleased
Yet nations like Israel and Saudi Arabia that loathed the deal saw the action as a sign the United States is returning to a more skeptical, less trusting approach to dealing with adversaries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump’s announcement as a “historic move.”
“I heard that Iran intends to continue its nuclear program and we will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons,” Israel’s prime minister said on Wednesday on his way to a Israeli Memorial Day ceremony in Jerusalem.
The president said Tuesday that documents recently released by Prime Minister Netanyahu showed Iran had attempted to develop a nuclear bomb in the previous decade, especially before 2003. Although the president gave no explicit evidence that Iran violated the deal, he said Iran had clearly lied in the past and could not be trusted.
Iran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms.
In a burst of last-minute diplomacy, punctuated by a visit by Britain’s top diplomat, the deal’s European members had given ground on many of President Trump’s demands for reworking the accord, according to officials, diplomats and others briefed on the negotiations. Yet the Europeans realized he was unpersuaded.
In Iran, many are deeply concerned about how President Trump’s decision could affect the already struggling economy. In Tehran, Rouhani sought to calm nerves, smiling as he appeared at a petroleum expo. He didn’t name President Trump directly, but emphasized that Iran continued to seek “engagement with the world.”