@MMAFighting fighter Arman Tsarukyan visits Vahan & Anoush Chamlian Armenian School pic.twitter.com/XuCiga4cYr
— Alphanews Armenian Network (@AlphaNewsAM) February 5, 2025
Day: February 4, 2025
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump signed the presidential memorandum reimposing Washington’s tough policy on Iran that was practiced throughout his first term.
As he signed the memo, Trump described it as very tough and said he was torn on whether to make the move. He said he was open to a deal with Iran and expressed a willingness to talk to the Iranian leader.
“With me, it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. Asked how close Tehran is to a weapon, Trump said: “They’re too close.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Iran is accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters in December. Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s memo, among other things, orders the U.S. Treasury secretary to impose “maximum economic pressure” on Iran, including sanctions and enforcement mechanisms on those violating existing sanctions.
It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran’s oil exports to zero.” U.S. oil prices pared losses on Tuesday on the news that Trump planned to sign the memo.
Tehran’s oil exports brought in $53 billion in 2023 and $54 billion a year earlier, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates. Output during 2024 was running at its highest level since 2018, based on OPEC data.
Trump had driven Iran’s oil exports to near-zero during part of his first term after re-imposing sanctions. They rose under Biden’s tenure as Iran succeeded in evading sanctions.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency believes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other OPEC members have spare capacity to make up for any lost exports from Iran, also an OPEC member.
China does not recognize U.S. sanctions and Chinese firms buy the most Iranian oil. China and Iran have also built a trading system that uses mostly Chinese yuan and a network of middlemen, avoiding the dollar and exposure to U.S. regulators.
Kevin Book, an analyst at ClearView Energy, said the Trump administration could enforce the 2024 Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) law to curtail some Iranian barrels.
SHIP, which the Biden administration did not enforce strictly, allows measures on foreign ports and refineries that process petroleum exported from Iran in violation of sanctions. Book said a move last month by the Shandong Port Group to ban U.S.-sanctioned tankers from calling into its ports in the eastern Chinese province signals the impact SHIP could have.
Trump also directed his U.N. ambassador to work with allies to “complete the snapback of international sanctions and restrictions on Iran,” under a 2015 deal between Iran and key world powers that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Britain, France and Germany told the United Nations Security Council in December that they are ready — if necessary — to trigger a snapback of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
They will lose the ability to take such action on October 18 when a 2015 U.N. resolution expires. The resolution enshrines Iran’s deal with Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and China that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, has said that invoking the “snap-back” of sanctions on Tehran would be “unlawful and counterproductive.”
European and Iranian diplomats met in November and January to discuss if they could work to defuse regional tensions, including over Tehran’s nuclear program, before Trump returned.
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, extended a halt to funding for the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and ordered a review of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO.
“It’s got great potential and based on the potential we’ll continue to go along with it, but they got to get their act together,” Trump told reporters. “It’s not being well run, to be honest and they’re not doing the job.
“A lot of these conflicts that we’re working on should be settled, or at least we should have some help in settling them. We never seem to get help. That should be the primary purpose of the United Nations,” the U.S. president said.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, “From day one, U.S. support for the United Nations has saved countless lives and advanced global security.”
“The secretary-general looks forward to continuing his productive relationship with President Trump and the U.S. government to strengthen that relationship in today’s turbulent world.”
Trump said that he was not looking to take away money from the 193-member world body, though he complained that Washington had to pay a disproportionate amount.
Washington is the U.N.’s largest contributor – followed by China – accounting for 22% of the core U.N. budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. The U.N. has said the U.S. currently owes a total of $2.8 billion, of which $1.5 billion is for the regular budget. These payments are not voluntary.
UNRWA
Trump’s order on Tuesday was largely symbolic and mirrored moves he made during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.
Since taking office for a second term on Jan. 20, Trump has ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization and from the Paris climate agreement – also steps he took during his first term in office.
The U.S. was UNRWA’s biggest donor – providing $300 million-$400 million a year – but former President Joe Biden paused funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
The U.S. Congress then formally suspended contributions to UNRWA until at least March 2025. UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
The United Nations has said that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon – killed in September by Israel – was also found to have had a UNRWA job. The U.N. has vowed to investigate all accusations made and repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided.
Human Rights Council
The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member Human Rights Council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The U.S. is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under Biden, the U.S. was re-elected and served a 2022-2024 term.
A council working group is due to review the U.S. human rights record later this year, a process all countries undergo every few years. While the council has no legally binding power, its debates carry political weight and criticism can raise global pressure on governments to change course.
Trump’s executive order on Tuesday also asks Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review and report back to him on international organizations, conventions, or treaties that “promote radical or anti-American sentiment.”
He specified that the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) should be reviewed first because Washington had previously accused it of anti-Israel bias.
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