US – Iran Tensions

• 2018: The Trump administration withdraws from the Iran nuclear — known formally as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
• The Trump administration imposes the sanctions on Iran, originally lifted as part of the nuclear deal.
- Purchase of US Dollar banknotes
- Trade in gold and precious metals
- Tariffs on automotive sector, etc

• 2019: The United States designated Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a
terrorist organization.
• The administration ends waivers that allowed countries to import Iranian oil.
• National Security Adviser John Bolton says that the US was not seeking a war with Iran, but that it was
“fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or
regular Iranian forces.”
• National Security Adviser John Bolton says that the US was not seeking a war with Iran, but that it was
“fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or
regular Iranian forces.”

• An Iranian oil tanker was seized by Britain in the Strait of Gibraltar on the grounds that it was shipping
oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

• Iran later captured a British oil tanker and its crew members in the Persian Gulf, the UK responded by
joining US forces in the gulf.

• The Trump administration imposes additional sanctions on Iran, targeting its steel, aluminium, and
copper industries.