RHETORIC HEATS UP US prez vows to ‘substantially increase’ sanctions on Iran
WASHINGTON: The US hopes to enlist allies over the next two weeks in a military coalition to safeguard strategic waters off Iran and Yemen, where it blames Iran and Iran-aligned fighters for attacks, the top US general has said. Under the plan, which has only been finalised in recent days, the US would provide command ships and lead surveillance efforts for the military coalition. Allies would patrol waters near those US command ships and escort commercial vessels with their nation’s flags.
■ The Sterett Destroyer escorts aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln through the Strait of Hormuz.REUTERS
President Donald Trump accused Iran on Wednesday of secretly enriching uranium for a long time and said US sanctions would be increased “substantially” soon, as the UN nuclear watchdog held an emergency meeting on Tehran’s breach of the 2015 nuclear deal. “Remember, that deal was to expire in a short number of years. Sanctions will soon be increased, substantially!,” Trump tweeted.
Washington used the session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors to accuse Iran of extortion after it inched past the deal’s limit on enrichment levels, while still offering to hold talks with Tehran. Iranian representative Kazem Gharib Abadi said it was a “sad irony that this meeting is convened with the request of the United States” as the current impasse was the result of the US’s “outlaw behaviour”, and condemned what he called the “sadistic tendency” of the US to impose sanctions on Iran.
Russia’s Ambassador to the IAEA Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted after the meeting that the US “was practically isolated on this issue”. Iran President Hassan Rouhani rebuffed a warning by European powers to continue compliance with the deal.