U.S. restores Iran sanctions after exiting nuclear deal

WASHINGTON — The United States was set to reimpose sanctions against Iran at 12:01 a.m. today, restoring economic penalties lifted under the 2015 nuclear accord and ratcheting up pressure on Tehran while worsening divides with European allies and other world powers.

The sanctions are a consequence of President Donald Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from an international deal that sought to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for easing pressure on the country’s shaky economy. Trump criticized the deal long before becoming president; his administration is betting that backing out of it will force Iran to shut down its nuclear enrichment efforts, curb its weapons program and end its support of brutal governments or uprisings in the Middle East.

In a statement, Trump again described the nuclear deal — by which other world powers are still abiding — as “horrible, one sided.” He said the Iranian government “faces a choice: Either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”

European officials have said the Iran nuclear agreement is crucial to their national security, and international inspectors have concluded Tehran is complying with the accord. “We are determined to protect European economic operators engaged in legitimate business with Iran,” the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement Monday. Russia and China also signed on to the 2015 deal.

But faced with a choice between the tiny Iranian market, which never lived up to expectations, and the huge U.S. market, major European companies overwhelmingly indicated they would observe the sanctions.

“We have suspended our activities in Iran, which were anyway very limited, until further notice according to applicable sanctions,” Daimler, the German maker of Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, said in a statement.

The new sanctions bar any transactions with Iran involving dollar bank notes, gold, precious metals, aluminum, steel, commercial passenger aircraft and coal, and they end imports into the United States of Iranian carpets and foodstuffs.

In a tweet Monday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran said the sanctions would endanger ordinary Iranians — particularly those who would feel the effects of the penalties on passenger jets.

The Trump administration “wants the world to believe it’s concerned about the Iranian people,” Zarif wrote. “U.S. hypocrisy knows no bounds.”

In a speech in May, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded that Iran end all nuclear enrichment and development of nuclear-capable missiles; release all American citizens; end its support for Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Houthi militias; and withdraw its forces from Syria.

He said such changes would be consistent with “global norms,” although the enrichment of nuclear material for civilian purposes and the development of rockets is, in most states, allowed under international law. Additionally, Russia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States also have forces fighting in Syria’s seven-year civil war.

In a conference call with reporters Monday, senior administration officials said they wanted a change in behavior from Tehran and were not demanding a change in government. They noted that the threat of new sanctions had already had an effect on the Iranian economy — including a plunge in the value of the rial, growing unemployment and increasing protests.

Some analysts worry that the Trump administration’s decision to go ahead with sanctions would encourage Europe, Russia and China to find ways around the U.S.-led financial system and undermine the success of economic penalties in other areas.

The European Union on Monday updated a blocking statute that seeks to protect European companies from any penalties imposed by the U.S. for doing business with, or in, Iran. The measure threatens companies with penalties if they comply with U.S. sanctions, putting some in a bind.

The law was originally passed in 1996 to protect companies against penalties imposed for doing business in Cuba, Libya and Iran. For years, the United States largely ignored European investments in Cuba to avoid friction.

But while top U.S. officials said Monday they would continue talking to foreign counterparts to cooperate on sanctions, they vowed to undertake vigorous enforcement of the restored penalties against Iran — regardless of European concerns. They also said more than 100 major businesses had already announced an intent to leave Iran, before the sanctions.