Washington will on Monday reintroduce far-reaching sanctions on Iran’s vital oil sales and banking sectors to try to force the Islamic Republic into negotiations to scrap its nuclear energy and ballistic missile programmes and end its support for proxies in conflicts across the Middle East.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said on Wednesday that Iran has no fear of “new American threats”, referring to November 4, when a wind-down period imposed by Washington expires, after which certain sanctions will be re-imposed.
The Trump administration said on Friday that eight importing countries would temporarily be allowed to keep buying Iranian oil when sanctions come back into effect.
Iran is the world’s No. 3 oil exporter.
Meanwhile, Tehran says it has complied fully with the nuclear accord and its commitment has been repeatedly confirmed by the U.N. atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).