US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that his administration would impose new sanctions against Iran.
Speaking in Washington before heading to the US presidential retreat at Camp David, where he said he would deliberate on Iran, Trump said: “We are putting additional sanctions on Iran.”
“In some cases we are going slowly, but in other cases we are moving rapidly,” he told reporters.
Military action was “always on the table,” the president added, but he said he was open to reversing the escalation and could quickly reach a deal with Iran that he said would bolster the country’s flagging economy.
Worries about a confrontation between Iran and the United States have mounted despite Trump saying he has no appetite to go to war with Iran. Tehran has also said it is not seeking a war but has warned of a “crushing” response if attacked.
“Any mistake by Iran’s enemies, in particular America and its regional allies, would be like firing at a powder keg that will burn America, its interests and its allies to the ground,” the senior spokesman of Iran’s Armed Forces, Abolfazl Shekarchi, told Tasnim on Saturday.
Tensions in the region began to worsen significantly when Trump pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six powers and reimposed sanctions on the country. The sanctions had been lifted under the pact in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program.
Over the past weeks the United States has also blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers last week in the Gulf of Oman and on four tankers off the United Arab Emirates on May 12.
Both incidents happened near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit for global oil supplies.
On Thursday, an Iranian missile destroyed a US Global Hawk surveillance drone. Tehran repeated on Saturday that the drone was shot down over its territory. Washington said the incident happened in international airspace.
Trump said on Friday he called off a military strike to retaliate because it could have killed 150 people, and signaled he was open to talks with Tehran.
