Trump Has Only Sticks, No Carrots

The Trump administration imposed crippling sanctions on Iran on Monday in a widely anticipated slap at the country. The penalties, which grew out of President Trump’s decision in May to abandon the Iran nuclear accord, take aim at Iran’s oil, banking, shipping, shipbuilding and insurance sectors, and are intended to force Tehran to either abandon its foreign policy ambitions or collapse.

Administration officials became almost gleeful in the run-up to Monday: There was a 12-day countdown clock on the State Department’s website that resembled an advent calendar; Mr. Trump tweeted a movie-poster-style image of himself with the words “Sanctions Are Coming” in a nod to the popular HBO series “Game of Thrones.”

In the show, though, counterattacks are frequent, and the Trump administration is now facing its own backlash.

European diplomats are quietly insisting they will complete work in the coming days or weeks on an alternative payment system with Iran that will bypass American sanctions. China, India, Russia and Iraq are likely to defy the new sanctions, too, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said this week that he would ignore them. Iran’s leaders remain defiant.

Read the full article and more in The New York Times.