TRUMP IRAN... WARNS US ‘RESTRAINT’ IS LIMITED
IMPOSES NEW SANCTIONS
John hudson, anne gearan, BY erin cunningham (c) 2019, The Washington Post Jun 25, 2019 - Washington -
The Trump administration targeted Iran’s supreme leader with new sanctions on Monday, using one of the few tools available to punish Iran for downing a U.S. drone after President Donald Trump took military strikes off the table last week.
Trump warned that his “restraint” might not last, but he appeared to muddy his own tough message with a vague threat to end U.S. protection for international shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz, off Iran.
The U.S. economic penalties are part of Trump’s strategy to drive a weakened Iran to the bargaining table for new talks over its nuclear ambitions. The sanctions were announced as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began recruiting allies, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to help monitor threats from Iran in the Persian Gulf.
It is far from clear that Iran will buckle. Iran’s U.N. ambassador said Monday that any thought of negotiation is “not ready yet.” He also disputed claims that Iran was behind a recent string of attacks on oil tankers and other provocations against nations operating in the region, including the United States.
Trump said the new “hard-hitting” sanctions will deny Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several other top officials access to financial resources. The administration also plans to target Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif with economic sanctions later this week.
The measures mean that any foreign financial institutions that provide significant “financial
services” to any of the Iranian officials would be subject to U.S. penalties.
“The assets of Ayatollah Khamenei and his office will not be spared from the sanctions,” Trump said. The president mispronounced the Iranian clerical leader’s name as “Khomeini,” which was the name of the former leader who died in 1989.
The decision to target Khamenei directly suggests that Trump is attempting to turn up pressure on the leader who would decide whether to accept an invitation to new negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Trump’s titular counterpart is President Hassan Rouhani, who presided over the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump rejects as flawed and weak.
Trump appears to be gambling that the pressure campaign will compel Iran’s leadership to agree to a new nuclear agreement and not prompt it to lash out militarily for what it views as an illegal effort to strangle Iran’s economy.
But analysts said the United States is reaching a point of diminishing returns when it comes to sanctions pressure.
On Monday, the Trump administration presented a case against Iran at the U.N. Security Council, arguing that Iran or its proxies were behind numerous assaults in the Middle East. The United States was not directly targeted in those actions, until the drone attack.
Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi told reporters at the United Nations that the unmanned “spy” plane violated Iranian airspace and ignored repeated radio warnings before it was shot down. The United States maintains that the aircraft was flying over international waters.
“We cannot accept any intimidation or any threat from anybody,” said Ravanchi, who helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal. He called for a regional dialogue under U.N. auspices and appeared to dismiss direct negotiations with Washington.
“How can we start a dialogue with somebody whose primary preoccupation is to put more sanctions on Iran?” he said. “So the atmosphere for such a dialogue is not ready yet.”