By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency report
UNITED States President, Donald Trump, has announced a 25 per cent tariff on countries doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as crackdown on protesters resulted in over 2,000 deaths.
He also urged Iranians to keep protesting, assuring that help was on the way, while the European Union, and UK, among others, vowed to sanction the Islamic republic over increasing death toll.
But Iranian authorities insisted they had regained control after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.
However, rights groups accuse the government of using live firearms against protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that had now lasted more than four days.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said in a social media post yesterday that the new levies would “immediately” hit the Islamic republic’s trading partners who also do business with the United States.
“Effective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This order is final and conclusive, “ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
Iran’s main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, according to economic database, Trading Economics.
The White House said Monday that Trump remained “unafraid” to deploy military force against Iran, but was pursuing diplomacy as a first resort.
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely much higher — “according to some estimates, more than 6,000”.
The internet shutdown has made it “extremely difficult to independently verify these reports”, IHR said, adding that an estimated 10,000 people had been arrested.
Meanwhile, UK governmentwill seek further sanctions on Iran and has summoned Tehran’s ambassador in London to answer for the horrific reports of a deadly crackdown on protesters, Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said.
Cooper told MPs in parliament that the United Kingdom will bring forward legislation “to implement full and further sanctions and sectoral measures” on Iran.
Cooper noted London has already sanctioned key players in Iran’s oil, energy, nuclear and financial systems, but would now target those in finance, energy, transport, software and “other significant industries which are advancing Iranian nuclear escalation”.
She said the UK would work with the EU and others on any “additional measures”.
Also, EU chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said Brussels would swiftly propose new sanctions on Iran.
“The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying. I unequivocally condemn the excessive use of force and continued restriction of freedom,” she posted online.
“Further sanctions on those responsible for the repression will be swiftly proposed,” she added.
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