US President Donald Trump yesterday restored his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump signed the presidential memorandum reimposing Washington’s tough policy on Iran that was practised throughout his first term.
As he signed the memo, Trump described it as very tough and said he was torn on whether to make the move. He said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and he hopes that a deal can be worked out with Tehran.
Trump has accused former president Joe Biden of failing to rigorously enforce oil-export sanctions, which Trump says emboldened Tehran by allowing it to sell oil to fund a nuclear weapons programme and armed militias in the Middle East.
Iran is ‘dramatically’ accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 per cent purity, close to the roughly 90pc weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters in December. Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s memo, among other things, orders the US Treasury secretary to impose ‘maximum economic pressure’ on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions.
It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at ‘driving Iran’s oil exports to zero’. US oil prices pared losses yesterday on the news that Trump planned to sign the memo, which offset some weakness from the tariff drama between Washington and Beijing.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tehran’s oil exports brought in $53 billion in 2023 and $54bn a year earlier, according to US Energy Information Administration estimates.
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