Trump Imposes New Sanctions on Iran Metal Exports

In an attempt to try to do even more damage to Iran’s economy, President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday announcing that the US is imposing sanctions on all Iranian exports of industrial metals.

The new sanctions cover Iran’s iron, steel, aluminium, and copper exports. The White House statement noted that this is the largest non-oil export Iran has, and amounts to about 10% of its export economy.

The sanctions are intended to ban any country on the planet from every buying any of these metals from Iran, and threatens sanctions if they do. It is unclear from statements who the main purchasers of Iranian metals are, though if alternate supplies are not available they may simply ignore the US sanctions, as some intend to with the oil sanctions.

President Trump’s statement threatened more “actions” against Iran “unless it fundamentally alters its conduct.” Indications are that this will happen at any rate, though US sanctions on Iran are already nearly all-emcompassing, limiting how much more they can practically do to the Iranians.