US President Donald Trump has announced what he described as “the most crushing economic operation against Iran ever undertaken” against any country.
Trump said the campaign would be economic in nature and would seek to impose an unprecedented level of isolation on Iran.
He also warned that “any country that allows its financial institutions, companies, airports or government agencies to provide any lifeline to Iran will face enormous economic consequences”.
Trump compared the planned measures to “an economic D-Day, just as the Normandy landings took place during the Second World War”.
He said his administration “needs all of our allies to stand with the United States to isolate and defeat the Iranian threat”.
Trump added that “Iranian oil smuggling, barter arrangements, cash transfers, exchange companies, ship registries and shell companies must stop”.
He said the Iranians had failed to seize the opportunity presented to them and that Iran was now “hanging by a thread”, adding that “no one gave Iran a greater opportunity to reach an agreement than the one I gave them”.
Trump further claimed that “the Iranian navy has disappeared, their air force has been destroyed, their military factories have been reduced to rubble, and their currency has lost its value”.
He said the measures would be “historic” and would “paralyse Iran and eliminate its ability to spread terrorism around the world”.
