'Sanctions Are Coming': Donald Trump Takes Aim At Iran

Ahead of the economic sanctions on Iran set to be imposed on November 5, United States President Donald Trump on Friday, November 2 tweeted a "Game of Thrones"- image of himself with the words "sanctions are coming".

Earlier, the White House confirmed the re-imposition of toughest sanctions on Iran, which were lifted by former president Barack Obama under the 2015 nuclear deal. Washington declared the sanctions on Tehran's shipping, financial and energy sectors. The sanctions are targetting the crude oil exports of the country.

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and China for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear program. Trump, however, walked out of the deal and reinstated sanctions citing Iran's support to ill-governance and Middle-East uprisings in May.

READ: The US Will Not Allow Iran To Develop World's Deadliest Weapons: Donald Trump

The Trump administration will also penalize countries for importing oil and foreign companies that do business with certain Iranian entities.

Reflecting on the same, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo underscored that the "ultimate aim is to compel Iran to permanently abandon its well-documented outlaw activities and behave like a normal country."

"On November 5th, the US will reimpose sanctions that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal on Iran's energy, shipbuilding, shipping, and banking sectors. These sanctions will hit at the core areas of Iran's economy. They are necessary to spur changes we seek on the part of the regime. These economic sanctions are just a part of the US government's total effort to change the behaviour of Ayatollah Khomeini, Qasem Soleimani, and the Iranian regime," Pompeo told reporters in a teleconference.

READ: The United Nations Court Orders The US To Lift Some Iran Sanctions

Pompeo asserted that the sanctions were "aimed at depriving the Iranian regime of the revenues that it uses to spread death and destruction around the world." Pompeo said that the administration was confident that the sanctions on Iran will be "incredibly effective".

"We're counting on the Iranian people to have the opportunity and we are working towards allowing the Iranian people to have the opportunity to have the government they want, a government that doesn't take wealth from their country and spends it on malign activity around the world," he further said.