President Trump on Wednesday morning ordered the U.S. Treasury to "substantially increase" sanctions against Iran.
The escalating measure follows several days of heightened tensions between the two countries over the attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. Trump's instructions to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin also come after several statements this week from Iranian leaders reiterating that Iran will not negotiate with the U.S. while sanctions are imposed.
"If the U.S. wants to have a seat at the negotiating table, it must return to its commitments and show that it's a reliable country," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in Tehran on Wednesday, according to Iranian state media. "If we can't rely on it, it's not a country with which there can be an agreement."
Tensions first flared after the U.S. blamed Iran for the drone attacks on two Saudi state-owned oil installations on Saturday. Iran has repeatedly, and vehemently, denied the charge; even sending a formal letter to Trump via the Swiss Ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Tehran, denying involvement, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
Diplomatic relations deteriorated last year after Trump made good on a campaign promise and withdrew the U.S. from the 2016 Iranian nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In November 2018, the U.S. Treasury re-imposed harsh sanctions, which had been rescinded under the JCPOA, on "critical sectors of Iran's economy" including energy, transportation, and finance. The U.S. also imposed sanctions on over 700 individual Iranian officials.
Over the last year, Iran has refused to publicly engage with the Trump administration until the U.S. recommits to the nuclear pact, which it withdrew from despite objections from the other signatories and international monitoring groups that confirmed Iran was complying with the JCPOA. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly expressed a willingness to negotiate with Iran and meet with its top leaders.
"We'll see what happens … I think Iran has a tremendous, tremendous potential," Trump said last week — before the attack in Saudi Arabia — on whether he will meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations' General Assembly, which kicked off in New York this week.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, said Tuesday that "there will be absolutely no negotiation between the officials of the Islamic Republic and the U.S. at any level; neither in New York and not anywhere else."
<i>Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki displays what he described as an Iranian drones used in the attack this weekend on Saudi Arabia's oil industry. Photo Credit: Amr Nabil/AP/Shutterstock</i>
At a press conference in Riyadh on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense presented the wreckage of drones that it claimed struck the two oil plants. Officials said the debris pointed to decisive evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack, which briefly crippled one of the world's most important oil facilities and sent shockwaves through global energy markets.
The Houthi group in Yemen, which is backed by Iran and is currently at war with a Saudi-led coalition, had claimed responsibility for the attack but did not provide conclusive evidence for the claim.
Despite direct accusations against Iran from top U.S. officials, Trump on Sunday said that the U.S. was "waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack" before responding. Trump did not elaborate as to whether the sanction hike was a direct response to the attack in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to inquiries from Cheddar.
Peter Zalzal, associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, joined Cheddar to discuss the Biden Administration's unveiling of stricter fuel-efficiency standards for new automobiles. "The administration estimated that these rules will reduce about 2.5 billion tons of climate pollution by 2050, and using less fuel also means that we have to go to the gas pump less often. And so it means we save money, thousands of dollars in avoided fuel costs each year for consumers," he noted.
The relatively robust March jobs report showed that despite the low unemployment rate, Black, Hispanic, and women job seekers are still having difficulty finding work. William M. Rodgers III, the vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that participation rates in the labor force ticked up for minorities, adding to other positive signs of growth. He also spoke to Cheddar News to discuss further the jobs figures, the state of the labor market, and rising inflation.
U.S. markets opened higher to kick off the second quarter, despite a miss on the March Jobs Report. The economy added $431,000 in the month, slightly lower than the $490,000 analysts had expected. The unemployment rate also ticked down to 3.6% from 3.8%. Kevin Simpson, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Capital Wealth Planning joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
President Biden is going after billionaires in his 2023 budget request to congress. The proposal would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on all households worth more than $100 million, as well as raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Rhett Buttle, Small Business for America's Future Senior Advisor, Business Policy Expert & Biden Campaign Business Advisor, breaks down the proposal, what it aims to accomplish, and how small businesses might feel about it.
The Biden administration has announced the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and provide more than 1 billion dollars in new funding for the growing humanitarian crisis. The move comes as President Biden meets with his western counterparts in Europe to demonstrate a united front against Russia and show support for Ukraine. Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Immigration Attorney for Outerbridge Law, explains how this is going to work.
The DOJ has endorsed an antitrust bill targeting tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. The legislation would ban the companies from favoring their own products and services over their competitor's, making it more difficult them to dominate the marketplace. Greg Day, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Georgia, breaks down the bill and its potential impact on anti-competition in the tech sector.
Catching you up with what you need to know on Apr 1, 2022, with Ukrainians hoping to flee the besieged city of Mariupol with a ceasefire is in place, President Biden orders the release of oil from U.S.reserves, LGBT activists suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the "Don't Say Gay" Law, U.S. passports offering an "x" option for gender, and more.
America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.
