Trump is Set to Renew the Sanctions on Iran

Then-US president Donald Trump holds up a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement, at the White House, in 2018.

(photo credit: JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS)

US President-elect Donald Trump plans to dramatically increase sanctions against Iran due to the Islamic Republic's support for terrorist militias, the expansion of its nuclear program, and a recently unveiled plot to assassinate him, sources briefed on Trump's early plans told The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

On Friday, the US Department of Justice charged a man in connection with a plot to kill the former president. According to Reuters, an accused Iranian operative, Farhad Shakeri, told law enforcement that an IRGC official tasked him in early October to create a plan to surveil and assassinate Trump.

 

“People tend to take that stuff personally,” Mick Mulroy, a top Pentagon official for the Mideast in Trump’s first term, told The Wall Street Journal. “If he’s going to be hawkish on any particular country, designated major adversaries, it’s Iran.”

In his first term, Trump imposed a “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and putting an embargo on Iranian oil exports in 2019.  His administration had hoped that this would lead Iran to curtail its nuclear program and stop funding and training US-designated terrorist groups.

Sources briefed on the plan told The Wall Street Journal that once he's in office, Trump would try to recreate the strategy of his first term by quickly cutting off Iran’s oil income, including pursuing any organization that handles Iranian oil. 

An Iranian missile system is displayed next to a banner with a picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during Iranian defence week, in a street in Tehran, Iran, September 24, 2024. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)

'Iran is definitely in a position of weakness'

“I think you are going to see the sanctions go back on, you are going to see much more, both diplomatically and financially, they are trying to isolate Iran,” a former White House official told The Wall Street Journal. “I think the perception is that Iran is definitely in a position of weakness right now, and now is an opportunity to exploit that weakness.”

In recent months, Israel and Iran have been engaging more directly with each other after the Iraninan-backed Hezbollah leader was killed by IDF forces in Beirut. A few months later, IDF forces killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Rafah, thus striking two major blows against Iran's axis of resistance. 

The Islamic State has vowed revenge on Israel after an October 26 attack on Iranian military facilities, but has not done so yet. It's unclear at this time if Trump's victory has anything to do with an Iranian response.