The Trump administration on Friday reimposed the crippling US sanctions on Iran lifted under the Obama nuclear deal \u2014 fully breaking with the fantasy that\u2026<\/b>
\nThe Trump administration on Friday reimposed the crippling US sanctions on Iran lifted under the Obama nuclear deal \u2014 fully breaking with the fantasy that rogue nations can be appeased or bribed into changing their criminal behavior.
The sanctions, which take full effect Monday, are aimed at Tehran\u2019s oil industry \u2014 which accounts for 80 percent of its tax revenue \u2014 and banking system.
The aim, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is simple: to \u201ccompel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw behavior and behave as a normal country.\u201d
Unlike the Obama administration, which limited its concern solely to Iran\u2019s nuclear activity, Team Trump has presented a list of 12 demands, including an end to state support of terrorism and involvement in Syria, as well as a complete halt to its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.
Under the sanctions, all purchases of Iranian oil are prohibited. The sole exception: eight countries that have been granted six-month waivers to complete their ongoing efforts to eliminate their Iran oil imports.
One area of concern: Team Trump didn\u2019t go with the hawks who wanted it to apply to bar all Iranian entities from the SWIFT global banking system.
But even as it allows some banks to remain connected, the Treasury Department is placing serious limitations: Iranian money that passes through the system can only go to special offshore accounts and be used for \u201creal humanitarian transactions,\u201d such as food, medicine and agricultural commodities.
Any violations would not only subject the banks to an immediate cutoff, but SWIFT itself would face possible sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.
Obama\u2019s billion-dollar carrot certainly didn\u2019t alter Iran\u2019s behavior. So Trump is now applying a long-overdue stick.<\/p>\n

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