Trump says countries trading with Iran face 25% US tariff

US -Correspondent / Web Desk) – President Donald Trump announced on Monday that any country continuing business ties with Iran will be hit with a 25% tariff on trade with the United States. The warning comes as Washington considers its next steps amid Iran’s largest anti-government protests in years.

In a message shared on Truth Social, Trump said the tariff would take effect immediately, stressing that nations trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran would face penalties on all commercial dealings with the US.

Tariffs are paid by US importers of goods from those countries. Iran has been heavily sanctioned by Washington for years.

“This order is final and conclusive,” Trump said without providing any further detail.

There was no official documentation from the White House about the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran’s trading partners. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Iran, which had a 12-day war with US ally Israel last year and whose nuclear facilities the US military bombed in June, is seeing its biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Trump has said the US may meet Iranian officials and that he was in contact with Iran’s opposition, while piling pressure on its leaders, including threatening military action.

Tehran said on Monday it was keeping communication channels with Washington open as Trump considered how to respond to the situation in Iran, which has posed one of the gravest tests of clerical rule in the country since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Demonstrations evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to defiant calls for the fall of the deeply entrenched clerical establishment. US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 599 people – 510 protesters and 89 security personnel – since the protests began on December 28.

While airstrikes were one of many alternatives open to Trump, “diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

During the course of his second term in office, Trump has often threatened and imposed tariffs on other countries over their ties with US adversaries and over trade policies that he has described as unfair to Washington.

Trump’s trade policy is under legal pressure as the US Supreme Court is considering striking down a broad swathe of Trump’s existing tariffs.

Planned attack on Radio Pakistan Peshawar proven by forensic evidence: Punjab information minister

Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producers’ group, exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to the World Bank’s most recent data.