President Donald Trump's efforts to isolate Iran through new international sanctions will also harm some of America's closest allies and other major world powers – a prospect top U.S. officials acknowledge as a hardship but dismiss as a necessary policy change.
As a result of withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in early May, the Trump administration will begin enforcing new sanctions by Nov. 4 on most companies and countries that do business with Iran and its $50 billion in annual exports, two-thirds of which are for oil. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo outlined in a speech last month that "these will be the strongest sanctions in history by the time we are done."
China, India, South Korea, Japan and France have become the largest investors in Iranian goods since 2015, according to the latest figures compiled by The Observatory of Economic Complexity, when the agreement brokered by the Obama administration limiting Iran's nuclear program opened up its markets. Now the Trump White House expects countries doing business with Iran, particularly its oil sector – not just China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union, who signed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 – to adhere to the new U.S. demands.
"We're asking them to make a policy change," a senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The reason they are willing to do that in my view is because of their relationship with us. And I think they genuinely understand that the secretary and the White House aren't kidding about this." READ MORE
