Trump in showdown with Iran, slaps fresh sanctions
Sports Page Page 20
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (AFP) - US President Donald Trump slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's weapons procurement network, provoking an angry response from Tehran in what is an increasingly tense standoff.
Officials said the new measures were in response to Iran's recent ballistic missile test and its support for the Huthi rebels in Yemen, who recently targeted a Saudi warship.
The new sanctions do not yet mean that the US has abandoned commitments it made under the deal to lift measures aimed at Iran's nuclear program, officials said.
But Trump has made no secret of his contempt for that accord, which his predecessor Barack Obama approved in July 2015, and officials said Friday's measures would not be the last.
“Iran is playing with fire -they don't appreciate how 'kind' President Obama was to them. Not me!” Trump tweeted.
During a visit to Tokyo on Saturday, US Defence Secretary James Mattis called Iran “the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
“It does no good to ignore it. It does no good to dismiss it,” he www. sundaytimes. lk said, but added that there are no plans to increase US troops in the Middle East.
Hardline US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn also drew a stark line in the sand.
“The days of turning a blind eye to Iran's hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over,” he said.
“This behaviour seems continuous despite the very favourable deal given to Iran by the Obama Administration. These sanctions target these behaviours.”
Iran on Saturday was set to stage a show of defiance by deploying missiles for a Revolutionary Guards exercise.
The Guards' Sepahnews website said the manoeuvres were aimed at demonstrating their “complete preparedness to deal with the threats” and “humiliating sanctions” from Washington.
A list of missiles to be deployed, published on the site, showed they were of very short range -- up to 47 miles (75 kilometers).
US intelligence and Treasury officials are constantly scrutinising Iran's networks, looking for evidence of extremist funding and advanced weapons procurement.
The immediate trigger for the sanctions was Iran's test, last Sunday, of a ballistic missile that US officials judge to have been capable of one day carrying a nuclear warhead.
But the latest detailed list of designations has clearly been in preparation for some time, and the White House says “nothing is off the table” -- even military action.
“We are undertaking a larger strategic review,” a senior US administration official told reporters. “The launch of the missile was the triggering event.”
Washington is also concerned about attacks by Huthi rebels, a powerful faction in Yemen's civil war which US intelligence believes is armed and supported by Iran.
This week Huthi forces attacked a Saudi warship operating off Yemen.
The senior official said Iran was “not necessarily responsible for every tactical decision” made by Huthi forces, but that it will be made to bear responsibility for its “proxies.”
But Russia, which is allied with Iranian forces in its defence of Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, is unlikely to allow new international sanctions to target Tehran.
US Treasury officials hope that preventing Iran's networks in Lebanon and China from buying US goods or using the US financial system will curtail their activity.
Nevertheless, Trump's pronouncements on the 2015 nuclear deal, and Iran's angry response that his taunts are “baseless” and “provocative,” have raised fears of an imminent showdown.
The nuclear deal obliged Iran to curtail its nuclear program and halt any nuclear weapons research in exchange for relief from US and international sanctions targeting the sector.
It was agreed between Tehran and six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US -- and Obama's White House hailed it as a blow against nuclear proliferation.