The Trump administration on Thursday announced its first round of new sanctions on Iran since the ceasefire that ended the 12-day US-Israeli war on the country, signaling the so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran will continue.
The US Treasury Department said it targeted an Iraqi businessman and a “network” of companies he runs over allegations that they’re involved in purchasing Iranian oil.
“Treasury will continue to target Tehran’s revenue sources and intensify economic pressure to disrupt the regime’s access to the financial resources that fuel its destabilizing activities,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Axios reported on Thursday that US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff is planning to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oslo next week to restart nuclear negotiations, but the talks haven’t been confirmed by either side, and Iranian officials say they need guarantees from the US that they won’t be attacked again.
“How can we trust the Americans?” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told NBC News in an interview published Thursday. “We want them to explain as to why they misled us, why they took such an egregious action against our people.”
Takht-Ravanchi said that Iran is in favor of dialogue and diplomacy but that the US needs “to convince us that they are not going to use military force while we are negotiating.”
The Iranian diplomat also said that Tehran would continue to enrich uranium as part of its civilian nuclear program, but it remains unclear how long it would take Iran to restart the program after the US and Israeli airstrikes on its nuclear facilities. President Trump has vowed he will bomb Iran again if it resumes uranium enrichment, though he is insisting that Iran won’t restart its program.
Before Israel launched the 12-Day War on June 13, the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had no evidence that showed Iran was moving toward a nuclear weapon. Iran was willing to bring uranium enrichment levels down as part of a deal for sanctions relief, but the US decided to back the Israeli attack instead.
