Trump wrote: “A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions!”
Trump returned to his usual threat – which he’s probably not allowed to use any more(Image: Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Donald Trump has threatened any country supplying weapons to Iran with eye-watering tariffs – something he probably doesn’t have the power to do.
Posting on his Truth Social website, Trump wrote: “A Country supplying Military Weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed, on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions!”
But in February, the Supreme Court struck down his ability to impose tariffs immediately and unilaterally as unlawful.
He had been using an “emergency powers” law to circumvent congress in imposing blanket tariffs on countries across the world.
Iran, the United States and Israel last night agreed to a two-week ceasefire – an 11th-hour deal that headed off Trump’s threat to unleash a bombing campaign that would destroy Iranian civilisation.
But hours after the announcement, Iran and Gulf Arab countries reported new attacks Wednesday.
It was not clear if the strikes would scuttle the deal, which Vice President JD Vance called “fragile.”
Even before the new attacks, much about the agreement was unclear as the sides presented vastly different visions of the terms.
Both the US and Iran have painted the truce as a victory – with Tehran applying strict conditions to their agreement to re-open the Strait of Hermuz to tankers under their supervision.
Trump initially said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan that could help end the war the US launched with Israel on Feb. 28. But when a version in Farsi emerged that indicated Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium – which is key to building a nuclear weapon – Trump called it fraudulent without elaborating.
Iran’s demands for ending the war, meanwhile, include a withdrawal of US combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions, and the release of its frozen assets.
In his post Wednesday, Trump said: “We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran.”
It’s not clear if other Western nations would agree to that – and the other points are likely nonstarters.
Pakistan said that talks to hammer out a permanent end to the war could begin in Islamabad as soon as Friday.
Israel backed the US ceasefire with Iran, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Wednesday that the deal doesn’t cover fighting against Hezbollah. Israel’s military said later that fighting and ground operations continue.
Loud booms could be heard throughout Beirut on Wednesday, and smoke rose from several points. It was not immediately clear what was targeted.
Hezbollah has not confirmed if it will abide by the ceasefire, though the group has said it was open to giving mediators a chance to secure an agreement. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the group would not stop firing at Israel unless Israel agreed to do the same.
While Iran could not match the sophistication of US and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz since the war began proved a tremendous strategic advantage: Iranian attacks and threats deterred many commercial ships from passing through the waterway, through which 20% of all traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime.
That has roiled the world economy and raised the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
The ceasefire may formalize a system of charging fees in the strait that Iran instituted — and give it a new source of revenue.
The plan allows for both Iran and Oman to charge ships, according to a regional official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss negotiations they were directly involved in. The official said Iran would use the money it raised for reconstruction.
That would upend decades of precedent treating the strait as an international waterway that was free to transit and will likely not be acceptable to the Gulf Arab states, which also need to rebuild after repeated Iranian attacks targeting their oil fields.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the strait would be allowed under Iranian military management — further clouding the picture of who would be allowed to transit the waterway.
Trump, meanwhile, suggested American warships would be “hangin’ around” the strait. That could be a potential flashpoint in days to come.
News of the ceasefire drove oil prices down Wednesday, but they were still higher than before the start of the Iran war, a sign that uncertainty still persists about the conflict.
US-Israeli strikes have battered Iran and its leadership, but they have not entirely eliminated the threats posed by Tehran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missiles or its support for regional proxies, like Hezbollah. The US and Israel said addressing those threats was a key justification for going to war.
Trump said Wednesday that the US would work with Iran to “dig up and remove” enriched uranium that was buried under joint US-Israeli strikes in June. He added that none of the material had been touched since. Any retrieval is expected to be an intensive undertaking.
There was no confirmation from Iran on that.
Tehran insisted for years that its nuclear program was peaceful, although it enriched uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.
Iran referred to its nuclear program differently in two versions of the ceasefire plan that it released. The version in Farsi included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear program. That phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats with journalists.
A senior Israeli official said the United States had coordinated the ceasefire with Israel in advance and said Israel’s government credited “the massive crushing of the regime’s infrastructure” with securing the agreement.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing private diplomatic conversations, the official said Washington had committed to pressing for the removal of nuclear material and dismantling of Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Airstrikes reported in the hours after the deal is announced
Shortly after the ceasefire announcement, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates all issued warnings about incoming missiles from Iran. That fire stopped for a time, then hostilities appeared to restart.
An oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island came under attack, according to Iranian state television. Its report said that firefighters were working to contain the blaze but no one had been hurt. It did not say who launched the attack.
The island is home to one of the terminals that Iran uses to export oil and gas.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani says the army wasn’t involved in the Lavan attack. The US military’s Central Command did not respond to questions about the strike.
A short time later, the United Arab Emirates’ air defenses fired at an incoming Iranian missile barrage. Kuwait’s military forces, meanwhile, responded to an “extensive wave” of drone attacks.
More than 1,900 people had been killed in Iran as of late March, but the government has not updated the war’s toll for days.
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed. and 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US service members have been killed.
