President Donald Trump has signaled new sanctions that his administration will be implemented against Iran by posting an image the parodied the popular television show Game of Thrones, according to reports from the Business Insider .
Trump took to Twitter and posted a photo of himself emblazoned with the phrase “Sanctions are Coming, November 5,” using the same font used on the show. The phrase used is a play on the term “Winter is Coming,” one of the show’s most popular catchphrases.
November 5 marks the day that the United States will re-impose the sanctions that were placed on Iran before 2015, when those sanctions were lifted after the signing of the Iran nuclear deal. The coming sanctions will affect Iran’s shipping, financial, and energy sectors.
The United States will also place sanctions on any country that continues to import Iranian oil after the sanctions are placed, as well as businesses that continue to do business with Iranian companies, which according to the report, include “Iran’s central bank, a number of private financial institutions, and state-run port and shipping companies.” Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin revealed that the businesses and people that will be blacklisted under the sanctions number 700.
Eight countries will be granted waivers that will allow them to temporarily continue to import Iranian petroleum products with the understanding that the will eventually halt the process. Those countries include US allies Italy, India, Japan, and South Korea.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018
The allowance of waivers did disappoint some anti-Iran hardliners in Congress, who want a complete disconnect from Iran’s oil industry as well as the country’s removal from the main international financial messaging network known as SWIFT.
While Mnuchin did allow the for some banks in Iran to remain connected to SWIFT, he did warn the Belgium-based network of punishment if it were to do business with any of the entities under the sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the sanctions were “aimed at fundamentally altering the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and released 12 demands that must be met by Iran before the sanctions will be lifted again, which according to the report include “ending military engagement in Syria, and completely halting its nuclear and ballistic missile development.”
The secretary of state added, “Maximum pressure means maximum pressure.” However, both Pompeo and Mnuchin did allow for exceptions to the sanctions in cases of humanitarian crisis.
Trump announced in May that he was withdrawing from the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehension Plan of Action (JCPOA), referring to the previous agreement as “defective at its core.”
HBO has not commented on Trump’s tweet.
