TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday lauded President Donald Trump’s “historic action” in reimposing sanctions on Iran.
“For years I’ve called for fully renewing sanctions against Iran’s murderous terrorist regime that endangers the entire world,” he said in a statement.
“The effect of the initial sanctions is already being felt — the rial is at a low, Iran’s economy is depressed and we’re already seeing results on the ground,” he added.
“Thank you President Trump for this historic action. Sanctions are indeed coming.”
Deputy Minister Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., also praised the reimposed sanctions as “a historic opportunity to amend the dangerous injustice of the Iran nuclear deal.”
In a nod to the tagline of the popular TV series Game of Thrones, Trump tweeted a picture of himself surrounded by fog with the phrase “Sanctions are Coming, November 5.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions are “aimed at fundamentally altering the behavior of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
He added that Iran must meet 12 demands in order to see the sanctions lifted, including ending its support of its terror proxies in Syria and stopping its nuclear and ballistic missile development.
France, Germany, Britain and the European Union condemned the move, issuing a joint statement that pledges to protect European companies involved in “legitimate” business dealings with Tehran.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the biggest loser of all was the U.S.
“This new US president … has disgraced the remnant of America’s prestige and that of liberal democracy. America’s hard power, that is to say their economic and military power, is declining too,” he said on his Persian Twitter account, quoting a speech in Tehran.