Trump Imposes New Sanctions on Iran

Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, according to Reuters.

The sanctions have targeted the office of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Iran's foreign minister and senior commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

“We do not seek conflict with Iran or any other country,” Trump said. “I can only tell you we cannot ever let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

“We will continue to increase pressure on Tehran until the regime abandons its dangerous activities,” he said.

He added that the sanctions have nothing to do with the Tehran's downing of a surveillance US drone last week.

Shortly after Trump signed the order, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that some of the sanctions were in the works before the drone was shot down.

He added that later this week sanctions will also be imposed on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“We’ve literally locked up tens and tens of billions of dollars,” Mnuchin said in the White House briefing room. “These sanctions are highly effective.”

Sanctions were also imposed on eight senior commanders of Navy, Aerospace, and Ground Forces of the IRGC, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

"These commanders sit atop a bureaucracy that supervises the IRGC’s malicious regional activities, including its provocative ballistic missile program, harassment and sabotage of commercial vessels in international waters, and its destabilizing presence in Syria," the statement read.

Zarif on Monday reiterated the country’s stance on Washington’s economic sanctions against Tehran and said the Islamic Republic is resolved to resist such pressures “with full power”.

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