President Donald Trump re-instituted his maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran this week following the country’s repeated attempts to assassinate him and its continued funding of terrorist groups around the world.
Trump signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Tuesday restoring the “maximum pressure” campaign, which saw Iran brought to its knees during his first term in office.
The renewed campaign establishes that:
- Iran should be denied a nuclear weapon and intercontinental ballistic missiles;
- Iran’s terrorist network should be neutralized; and
- Iran’s aggressive development of missiles, as well as other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, should be countered.
The executive order directed the U.S. Treasury to impose “maximum economic pressure” by imposing new and enforcing existing sanctions against the regime.
The administration will issue guidance for all relevant business sectors on what will happen if they violate sanctions placed on Iran.
“The Secretary of State will also modify or rescind existing sanctions waivers and cooperate with the Secretary of Treasury to implement a campaign aimed at driving Iran’s oil exports to zero,” the White House said. “The United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations will work with key allies to complete the snapback of international sanctions and restrictions on Iran.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi will “pursue all available legal steps to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute financial and logistical networks, operatives, or front groups inside the United States that are sponsored by Iran or an Iranian terror proxy,” the statement said. “The Attorney General will prosecute leaders and members of Iranian-funded terrorist groups that have captured, harmed, or killed American citizens and seek their arrest and extradition to the United States.”
The administration stated that Trump “will not tolerate Iran possessing a nuclear weapons capability, nor will he stand for their sustained sponsorship of terrorism, especially against U.S. interests.”
