Trump Threatens “Tremendous” Consequences for Countries Helping Iran
President Trump has threatened severe economic consequences for countries and entities helping Iran, potentially putting China and its purchases of Iranian oil at the center of Washington’s latest pressure campaign.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened any country helping Iran in any way with “tremendous economic consequences,” as the American Administration is ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran in the hope of ending the war it began in February. Late on Wednesday, President Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social – as usual – to announce massive economic pressure on Iran and simultaneously threaten dire economic consequences on any country providing a “lifeline” to Iran in any way. “No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me.
TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!,” President Trump wrote . The crushing economic operation would be “on an unprecedented scale” to isolate Iran economically, according to the U.S.
President. “Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” President Trump said. “Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.” The U.S.
President did not explicitly name any country in his post. In the oil market, Iran’s key customer is none other than China, which has been buying more than 90% of all sanctioned Iranian oil in recent years. Earlier this month, analysts expected that China’s independent refiners are likely to return to buying higher volumes of Iran’s crude oil in August as stockpiles in Shandong, home to the independent Chinese refiners, have dropped to the lowest level this year after the biggest estimated monthly draw in a decade.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
