United States President, Donald Trump, on Wednesday ordered increased sanctions on Iran, the latest escalation in tensions between the two countries following the attack over the weekend on Saudi oil facilities.
“I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
The new violence in the Middle East has led to fears that further action on any side could rapidly escalate a confrontation that’s been raging just below the surface in the wider region in recent months.
Last month, Trump called off a military attack on Iran, at the last minute, after Tehran downed an unmanned US military drone. Iran maintains the drone was in Iranian airspace. The US says it was in international territory.
Those tensions have been boiling ever since Trump pulled the US out of Iran’s 2015 agreement with world powers that curtailed Iranian nuclear activities and the US re-imposed sanctions that sent Iran’s economy into freefall.
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