By Keith Preston
The newest sanctions to be imposed against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have been announced by the United States represent the ongoing efforts of the Trump administration to escalate hostilities with Iran.
During his campaign in 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump expressed opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was an eight party agreement between Iran, the United States, England, France, Russia, China, Germany and the European Union that had been formulated in Switzerland in 2015 during the administration of former President Obama. The core provisions of the “Iran nuclear deal,” as it has been called, were the lifting of international sanctions against Iran by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union in exchange for a range of concessions from Iran concerning uranium development. While the agreement received nearly universal praise from the international community, a…