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 In November 2018, the U.S. Treasury re-imposed harsh sanctions, which had been rescinded under the JCPOA, on "critical sectors of Iran's economy" including energy, transportation, and finance.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.
Young Americans face a double burden from crushing student debt and the ballooned federal deficit that is the result of President Trump's tax cut, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin in an interview that aired Wednesday. Pelosi called the economic position many millennials find themselves in, even as the economy remains strong, "unconscionable." "Republicans foisted onto future generations [an] economy that is unfair, that is not really lending itself to growth in a strong, predictable, confident, certain way," Pelosi said.
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Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon is pushing forward for marijuana reform, introducing the aptly named House Resolution 420 to regulate marijuana much like alcohol was regulated post-Prohibition. "Ultimately we're going to be moving in that direction, allowing the states to be able to set up a regulatory system that meets their needs ー have their own approach in terms of taxation and distribution, just like alcohol," Blumenauer told Cheddar Tuesday. "
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Between changes in the tax code and the government shutdown, H&R Block knows this year's tax season is likely to be stressful for many. That's why the company's introducing a slate of tools, some artificial intelligence-enabled, to help make it easier and more transparent to file. "This year we are introducing upfront, transparent pricing, so every single consumer will know what's it going to cost before I start," H&R Block CEO Jeff Jones told Cheddar.
The battle of the billionaires may be heating up ahead of the 2020 presidential race, as former mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg took a swipe at ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz after he announced a potential run for president as an independent during an interview on "60 Minutes" Sunday. The two billionaires are looking in part to capitalize on their corporate success to gain an edge against President Trump, who leveraged his business career to gain the presidency. "Anything is really possible at this point, and you don't want to ignore a white billionaire announcing a candidacy for president," Julia Manchester, reporter at The Hill, told Cheddar Monday. "We saw it happen in 2015 and \[Trump]\ won."
The U.S. Treasury on Monday announced sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil firm in an effort to undermine incumbent president Nicolás Maduro and reinforce support for interim president Juan Guaidó. Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and director of global engagement under President Obama, called the administration's decision a "rare bright spot" in Trump's foreign policy. "The Trump administration is holding firm to defend democracy, they are standing up for human rights, they are standing up for the rule of law," Bruen told Cheddar Monday.
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