U.S. President Donald Trump has issued fresh threats to Iran. Trump has said it would be “a very bad mistake” on the part of Iran if it acted against the U.S in any way.
President Trump has been a very strong supporter of Saudi Arabia and Israel the two major regional rivals of Iran. Trump has been exerting more and more pressure on the Shia Islamic republic doing away with the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor and imposing sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Last month US ended the exemptions to sanctions which five top oil importers of Iranian oil enjoyed. The five countries that enjoyed exemptions from US sanctions are – Turkey, China, India, Japan and South Korea.
Currently tensions are soaring between US and Iran over the damage to four tankers near the Strait of Hormuz. On Sunday four commercial tankers were damaged at Fujairah located south of the Strait of Hormuz. Two of these were Saudi tankers, Saudi Arabia along with UAE have labeled these as sabotage attacks. Sections in the US press have said that ‘Iran and its proxies’ could be targeting maritime traffic in the region and the US government has proceeded to deploy an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers in the Persian Gulf region. Many annalists believe that US is attempting to bring about a regime change in Iran through applying economic pressure on them. Prior to the Islamic revolution of 1979 Iran was the premier ally of the US in the region.
