Donald Trump has signed into force new "hard-hitting" sanctions against Iran, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran
Mr Trump said that the issue of the US drone downed by Iran last week “could probably add that into this” but that the sanctions were “something that was going to happen anyway.”
The president is also facing criticism on multiple fronts as the week begins, including domestic outcry over the treatment of migrant children held in “filthy” border detention centres. Meanwhile, questions have been raised after documents were released showing the president's transition team "red flagged" the appointed of a senior general for a top administration post over his opposition to the use of torture.
After postponing the mass deportation of immigrants at the request of Democrats over the weekend, the president gave an interview to NBC’s Meet the Press in which he fielded questions about possible Russian election hacking in 2020, the state of the US economy, and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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"These commanders sit atop a bureaucracy that supervises the IRGC's malicious regional activities, including its provocative ballistic missile programme, harassment and sabotage of commercial vessels in international waters, and its destabilizing presence in Syria," the department added.
He added that the US did not consult with allies on the new sanctions.
Steven Mnuchin has addressed reporters currently on lockdown in the White House briefing room, saying, “The President has also instructed me that we will be designating Javad Zarif later this week.”
Mr Zarif currently serves as Iran’s foreign minister.
“These measures represent a strong and proportionate response to Iran’s increasingly provocative actions,” Mr Trump said.
There are also some reports that Washington will add Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif to the sanctions list later this week.
The White House was put under lockdown on Monday morning, according to reporters who cover the administration.
Journalists posted messages on social media announcing the lockdown as they were assembled in the White House press briefing room, where they have not had a briefing in nearly 100 days.
“We are literally locked in here,” wrote Megan Pratz, a reporter for Cheddar. “We can’t see much but Secret Service officers just ran across the lawn.”
The Secret Service posted a statement on Twitter minutes later saying the agency was “responding to an incident involving a suspicious package located on Pennsylvania Ave.”
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