WASHINGTON — The United States is announcing new sanctions on Iran as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday announced new sanctions targeting Iran’s steel, aluminum, copper and iron sectors, which provide foreign currency earnings for Iran’s crippled economy.
Earlier Wednesday, Iran threatened to enrich its uranium stockpile closer to weapons-grade levels in 60 days if world powers fail to negotiate new terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Trump pulled out of the deal a year ago, but European and other nations stayed in.
Iran’s move comes at a sensitive moment in the region.
The White House said it dispatched the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over what it described as a new threat from Iran.
