“We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday,” Trump said in a tweet on Saturday shortly after leaving the White House for an Iran-focused working trip to Camp David.
Trump, who did not offer more details on the measures, said previous sanctions had squeezed Iran hard already and he will add more financial pressure.
“Iran right now is an economic mess,” he said on the South Lawn of the White House. “They are going through hell, the sanctions are hitting them hard.”
After a week of crises in the Persian Gulf, with a purported attack by Iranian forces on oil tankers and the downing of an unmanned U.S. drone by elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, Trump mixed conciliatory gestures toward Iran with warnings of harsh retaliation if Tehran’s leadership mount any more military attacks on U.S. interests.
While saying “many people” agree with his last-minute decision not to attack Iranian sites on Thursday in retaliation for Iran shooting down the U.S. drone, he said that did not mean he was turning soft.
“Now if the leaders of Iran behave badly, then it is going to be a very, very bad day for them, but hopefully they are smart, and hopefully they are for their people and not themselves,” he said. “And hopefully we can get Iran back onto an economic track that is fantastic.”
