Trump sanctions Iran, Iraq's militias delay handover, Palestinian factions meet to discuss elections

John, the US has promised to unleash economic asphyxiation on Iran.

Iran was pretty sort of under pretty severe sanctions anyway, even before the start of this war.

So what exactly is

new here? Well, in essence, we don't really know yet.

So Besant, the US Treasury Secretary, has come out and he's announced that there will be a new package of sanctions named Operation Economic Outcast, which I think US planners might come to regret given the way that things are going, for instance, with Canadian trade talks at the moment.

But essentially, we don't really know because they've announced the sanctions and they're going to countries one by one and giving them a shopping list of measures to take to So essentially, the aim would be to exclude further exclude the Iranian economy from the dollar financial system.

And this would have the effect of essentially, well, hopefully applying more pressure to the regime, of course, because this can be very much seen as a failure to bring the Iran war to an end.

Despite Trump assuring the press earlier today that it's all going very well, as he has done countless times.

The big trading partners are, well, previously the UAE, but since attacks on their territory, they've stopped.

But primarily China.

Right, yeah.

They buy a lot of their oil.

They buy a lot of their oil.

Less so over seaborne traffic now, but mainly by rail, which is more expensive.

But again, China buys their oil at big discounts.

And yeah, Iran's under blockade.

So the way this will work is that they're secondary sanctions.

So previously, the U.S. has designated entities, ships, companies, people, including another 60 with this new announcement.

But these will target the trading partners themselves.

And again, the big risk is China.

So it's not sanctions

on Iran.

It's sanctions on friends of Iran.

Precisely.

Precisely.