US restores Iran sanctions lifted under Obama nuclear deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday announced the reimposition of all U.S. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, ramping up economic pressure on the Islamic Republic as President Donald Trump completed the unraveling of what had been one of his predecessor's signature foreign policy achievements.

The sanctions, which will take effect on Monday, cover Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors and are the second batch the administration has reimposed since Trump withdrew from the landmark accord in May. The rollback ends U.S. participation in the nuclear deal, which now hangs in the balance as Iran no longer enjoys any relief from sanctions imposed by the world's largest economy.

Shortly after the announcement, Trump tweeted what looks like a movie poster image of himself walking that takes creative inspiration from the TV series "Game of Thrones" to announce the reimposition of sanctions. It, says "Sanctions are Coming, November 5."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are "aimed at fundamentally altering the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran." He has issued a list of 12 demands that Iran must meet if it wants the sanctions lifted. Those include ending support for terrorism and military engagement in Syria and a complete halt to its nuclear and ballistic missile development.

The 2015 deal, one of former President Barack Obama's biggest diplomatic successes, gave Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, which many believed it was using to develop atomic weapons. Trump repeatedly denounced the agreement as the "worst ever" negotiated by the United States and vowed to withdraw from it during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump and other critics of the deal said it gave Iran too much in return for too little, allowed Iran to gradually resume nuclear activity that could eventually be used for weapons development and did not address any of the country's other problematic activities.

Obama-era officials as well as the other parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union — have vehemently defended it. The Europeans have mounted a drive to save the agreement from the U.S. withdrawal, fearing that the new sanctions will drive Iran to pull out and resume all of its nuclear work.

The foreign and finance ministers of Britain, France, Germany and the top EU diplomat blasted the restoration of sanctions, saying that Iran is complying with the deal and that they were working on ways to mitigate the impact of the U.S. move.

"We deeply regret the further re-imposition of sanctions by the United States," they said in a joint statement. "As parties to the (deal), we have committed to work on the preservation and maintenance of effective financial channels with Iran, and the continuation of Iran's export of oil and gas."

With limited exceptions, the reimposed U.S. sanctions will hit Iran as well as countries that do not stop importing Iranian oil and foreign firms that do business with blacklisted Iranian entities, including its central bank, a number of private financial institutions, and state-run port and shipping firms, as well as hundreds of individual Iranian officials.

"Our ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave as a normal country," Pompeo told reporters in a conference call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "Maximum pressure means maximum pressure."

Pompeo said eight nations will receive temporary waivers allowing them to continue to import Iranian petroleum products for a limited period as they move to end such imports entirely. He said those countries, which other officials said would include U.S. allies such as Turkey, Italy, India, Japan and South Korea, had made efforts to eliminate their imports but could not complete the task by Monday.

The waivers, expected to be announced Monday, will be valid for six months, during which time the importing country can buy Iranian oil but must deposit Iran's revenue in an escrow account. Iran can spend the money but only on a narrow range of humanitarian items. Pompeo said two of the eight countries would wind down imports to zero within weeks.

Mnuchin said 700 more Iranian companies and people would be added to the sanctions rolls. Those, he said, would include more than 300 that had not been included under previous sanctions.

"We are sending a very clear message with our maximum pressure campaign: that the U.S. intends to aggressively enforce our sanctions," he said.

Israel, which considers Iran an existential threat and opposed the deal from the beginning, welcomed Friday's announcement.

"Thank you, Mr. President, for restoring sanctions against an Iranian regime that vows and works to destroy the Jewish state," Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said in a tweet.

Some Iran hawks in Congress and elsewhere, however, were disappointed in the sanctions as they had been pushing for no oil import waivers as well as the complete disconnection of Iran from the main international financial messaging network known as SWIFT.

One group that has been highly critical of the deal welcomed the new sanctions but said there should be no exceptions.

"We encourage the Trump administration to fulfill the promise of a maximum pressure campaign — no exceptions — until Iran permanently and verifiably changes its behavior," United Against a Nuclear Iran said in a statement. "Oil and gas firms, including those from friendly countries like India, South Korea and Japan, should not be granted sanctions waivers. Similarly, financial entities — including SWIFT — must sever ties with Iranian banks and financial institutions."

Mnuchin defended the decision to allow some Iranian banks to remain connected to SWIFT, saying that the Belgium-based firm had been warned that it will face penalties if sanctioned institutions are permitted to use it. And, he said that U.S. regulators would be watching closely Iranian transactions that use SWIFT to ensure any that run afoul of U.S. sanctions would be punished.

Pompeo, meanwhile, defended the oil waivers, saying U.S. efforts to cut Iran's petroleum revenue had already been successful. He noted that since May, when the U.S. began to press countries to stop buying Iranian oil, Iran's exports had dropped by more than 1 million barrels per day.

Pompeo and Mnuchin both said the sanctions will have exceptions for humanitarian purchases, although Iran deal supporters said the people of Iran would suffer because companies will be reluctant to do any business in the country for fear of being excluded from the U.S. financial system.

They point to the fact that the Iranian economy is already reeling from the earlier sanctions with the currency losing half its value since April and the prices of fruit, poultry, eggs and milk skyrocketing.